Blood For Noxus
by TwoHeartedAlien
Summary: Riven meets the famed Sinister Blade while she's on a visit to meet Fury Company, capturing the assassin's eye. Two part story of Riven and Katarina in Noxus. [RivenxKatarina] [RivenxQuinn]
1. Chapter 1

Katariven Angst Fic

Chapter 1:

Riven headed back to her small single room in the barracks covered by one towel wrapped around her body. She had spent all day sparring with her Commander, a boy named Finbar who was barely a year older than herself, over time she had become his right hand when it came to controlling Fury Company having served in it for almost two years now. Riven was one of the best soldiers they had by far, putting in twice the hours in the training room as the next best man.

With how tired she was right now, Riven normally wouldn't have bothered showering before collapsing in her bed but tonight was different, Fin had told her that there was originally going to be a visit from one of the Generals to inspect the barracks and have some sort of meet and greet with the soldiers of Fury Company. The General couldn't make it but he was sending his daughter in his place to make a visit.

Any normal woman would have felt uncomfortable with the prospect of walking from the shared showers down the hall back to her own room in nothing but a towel however Riven knew none of the men in her company had the courage to try take her on, not after being ruthlessly beaten in one on one sparring sessions repeatedly in the past.

Once back inside her own room, Riven fumbled with the locks on the small chest at the end of her bed, the only thing given to her by the military to store her belongings and pulled out some clean clothing to dress herself in for tonight. She chose her dress uniform, one that doesn't get worn much and was practically brand new after having been issued it two years prior, which was a pair of black dress pants, a black button down dress shirt with the Noxian insignias on the shoulders in crimson. She pulled her leather boots back on, tying the laces tightly before locking the chest again. Riven had never really had many belongings due to her childhood but the few she did have she intended on keeping safe from the thieving hands of some of her neighbours.

There was a loud knock on the door, before Riven could even answer; it swung open with Fin standing in the doorway. The way Fin looked deceived most of his opponents, he was tall and lanky, he looked far weaker than he actually was and made many opponents complacent, thinking he was an easy target but in reality, the blond was the only man in Fury Company that gave Riven much of a challenge.

"Don't you know how to knock?" She asked, staring up at Fin.

"We're going to be late, besides, I never knock."

"You would think it was you who was raised on the streets, not me, with the way you act sometimes." Fin was really the only person Riven could be comfortably open about her past with. Riven felt his hand pressing on her upper back, forcing her through the door way.

"Come. Wouldn't want to keep the Sinister Blade waiting." Riven quirked her eyebrow up at the blond before moving forward fast enough to no longer be pushed by him.

"The Sinister Blade?" She queried. Riven had heard the name somewhere before but she had never been one for following politics or celebrities.

"Yes, General Du Couteau's daughter, Katarina Du Couteau, also known as the Sinister Blade. Deadly assassin with knives and all that."

"You don't sound very impressed." Riven said as they made their way down the stairs, heading for the courtyard outside.

"I think it's one thing to be skilled with blades and sneaking up on people so they can't fight back, I think it's an entirely different thing to fight someone one on one and win, it takes true skill to win a duel." Riven pursed her lips, considering it before shrugging her shoulders.

Riven and Finbar gathered with the other men from Fury Company in the open courtyard, waiting patiently for the Sinister Blade and the men giving her the grand tour to make an appearance so they could all go to dinner. Eventually the assassin made her appearance, a young woman with crimson hair and a deep scar bisecting her left brow and cheek only just missing her eye, her entire outfit being leather. She wore leather boots, tight leather pants that rode low on her hips with a leather crop top exposing her midriff and a leather jacket that covered her arms. Did the assassin own anything that didn't come in leather? She wondered. Riven ran her eyes over the tribal tattoo that decorated the redheads hip and stomach. Her staring was only interrupted by a sharp elbow from Fin.

"Stop that right now." He murmured to her under his breath.

"Stop what?" She asked innocently, looking to the side as if she hadn't just been openly staring at the Du Couteau woman.

"She's the daughter of a general and she's an assassin, so don't." Riven rolled her eyes slightly before turning back to where she had seen the assassin last. The redhead had moved, she was now walking down the line of soldiers at the front, making the briefest of eye contact with each man. It was clear she had no interest in carrying out her father's duties. The only time she stopped while walking down the front line was when she made eye contact with Riven, the assassin's emerald eyes raking themselves up and down Riven's front and locking eyes before moving onto greeting Fin with a handshake.

Katarina exchanged brief words with Fin, obviously not interested in speaking to Fin, raking her eyes over Riven once more before walking away with the men who were serving as her tour guides. Riven swallowed hard, having not realised that she had been holding her breath while the assassin was near. She then felt Fin's eyes on her before he rolled them.

"You're not planning to listen to me, are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Riven walked at a leisurely pace through the cobbled inner streets of Noxus. Fin had given her the task of bringing a classified report to High Command, making some sort of excuse about having important duties to attend to as being the reason why he couldn't do it himself, when Riven really knew it was because he didn't feel like making the day long walk from the military barracks and back. She cursed the idiot who had decided that placing the barracks so far away from High Command would be a good idea. She cursed herself for being enough of an idiot to bring her Zweihander with her, having a large sword strapped to her back didn't make the trip any easier.

She let out an audible sigh as she reached the front gates of High Command, of course it resided right at the top of several flights of stairs on a hill. Riven had never seen the outside of it before, let alone the inside, the area was under intense scrutiny with everyone who came and went being noted.

"State your business." One of the guards posted at the front gates asked, running his eyes over the uniform she wore which put her lack of right to be here on full display.

"A report from Commander Finbar, he requested I bring it here on his behalf." She pulled the rolled up paper from her coat, presenting it to the guard, allowing him to check the seal to confirm who it was from. She waited patiently as the guard carried out his purposefully over the top inspection before he handed it back, letting her inside.

With a huff, Riven began climbing up the flights of stairs, fighting against the incline of the hill until she reached the front doors and entered. The halls of High Command were decorated with hand painted portraits of revered Generals of the past and high value items collected from various military campaigns around the content. It was a purposefully gratuitous display of strength and power.

After getting some directions from one of the guards making rounds inside, she began to head for the office of General Du Couteau, the man the report was for. As she approached his office, a redhead donning an outfit consisting only of leather walked out, making eye contact with Riven.

"You." The assassin started, a slight smirk playing on the corner of her lips. "You were one of the soldiers at the barracks yesterday, yes?"

"Yes, my lady." Katarina's eyebrow quirked ever so slightly at the use of her formal title, clearly not particularly fond of it, before looking at the Zweihander strapped to Riven's back.

"You use that weapon?"

"Yes, my lady." Katarina hummed slightly, considering her words before speaking again.

"I want you to meet me at The Brass Lantern this evening. I trust you know where that is?" Riven only nodded as her response, of course she knew where that was. It was a well-known bar with a reputation as being the place to go to conduct meetings that you would prefer no one else know about. The assassin smirked before continuing past Riven down the hall.

Riven quickly handed over Fin's report to General Du Couteau before heading towards the exit of High Command. Once outside, standing on the top of the stairs, Riven used the position of the sun in the sky to figure out how long she had before her agreed meeting with the assassin. She figured she didn't have enough time to return to the barracks and decided to head straight for the Brass Lantern to wait for the assassin to arrive.

The Brass Lantern was located on the border of the seedy side of town, it was close enough to the rich to allow them to use it for private meetings, whether it be them looking for sex or a chance to do illegal things out of the public eye, but far away enough that it wasn't a regular spot for those of high status.

Riven sat in a booth with a glass of bourbon in hand, her zweihander propped up against the seat beside her as she waited. She was wearing the same dress uniform she had worn yesterday when Katarina had visited the barracks on behalf of her father. She lost herself, deep in thought until the assassin finally made an appearance, taking a seat in the booth across the table from Riven.

"My lady." Riven greeted, causing Katarina to roll her eyes slightly.

"You can stop with that now. Just call me Katarina." Riven just nodded before taking a sip from her glass. After a few moments of silence between the pair, the assassin spoke again, "You don't talk much do you? I don't think you've said anything other than my lady."

"Not really." She said before taking another drink. Katarina's slender fingers wrapped around the glass, removing it from Riven's hand and placing it back on the table.

"Come." Katarina said, grasping the collar of Riven's black dress shirt and pulling her out of the booth. Riven quickly grabbed the hilt of her zweihander, letting Katarina pull her out of the bar and down the street.

Riven followed the assassin through the streets without asking any questions, already knowing where Katarina planned to take her. They walked in silence until they reached the front gates of a large estate, the assassin gesturing for Riven to follow her inside. She followed the redhead through the endless corridors of the mansion before Katarina pulled her inside her room and backed her up against the door after it closed behind them.

Riven felt the assassin's lips hungrily attack her neck, her nimble fingers undoing her shirt buttons. She could tell Katarina had done this exact thing many times before, probably to countless soldiers that had caught her eye. It wasn't long before her upper body was exposed; Katarina's hands groping as she finally locked lips with Riven, biting her lower lip before pulling away.

The assassin's fingers moved down, grabbing Riven by her belt buckle and pulling her towards the bed, shoving her onto her back. She watched as Katarina began to undress herself, removing her leather jacket, crop top and boots, tossing them aside. Her fingers then moved to untying the laces of Riven's military issue boots, dropping them to the floor before undoing the soldier's belt, tugging at the pants and leaving Riven only in her underwear. Katarina climbed on top of her, pulling the underwear away.

"Someone's eager." Riven managed to murmur before Katarina's mouth was against hers again, keeping the soldier quiet. Katarina then moved down, settling between Riven's legs before putting her mouth against Riven, her tongue flat against her clit. Riven bit down on her lip, preventing the desperate noise Katarina had brought forward from coming out, the redhead then pushed two of her fingers into Riven. The assassin's aggressive tactics working far better on Riven than she would have liked, causing Riven to murmur swears under her breath. Katarina dug the fingernails of her free hand into Riven's hip as she brought the soldier quickly to her release. It didn't take long before Riven came; Katarina clearly knew what she was doing.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Riven woke the next day still in the bed of the Sinister Blade, she and Katarina had spent many hours tossing in the sheets together before Riven eventually stayed over due to exhaustion. When she woke, she was surprised to find the arm of the assassin draped around her waist, Katarina pressing up against her in a spooning position. Riven laid in bed quietly, her eyes examining the room she hadn't had much chance to look at the night prior.

The room itself was over the top in its size, it was basically an apartment inside a mansion. It had its own living room area filled with expensive furniture with both a study and a bathroom attached. The only thing it didn't have was its own kitchen, though Riven was sure that the Du Couteau's had their own kitchen staff downstairs to do that work for them.

Riven's attention was brought back to the assassin behind her when she felt the redhead stirring, Riven turned her head to look at Katarina before she was kicked out of the bed and onto the floor. The assassin sat up, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sure you can get dressed and find your own way out." Katarina watched in silence as Riven collected her clothes that had been scattered around the room the night prior and got dressed. She grabbed her zweihander from beside the door and left without saying goodbye. She had figured this would be what Katarina would want; a one-time thing without ceremony and Riven was okay with that even if the kick out of bed was a bit rough.

Riven began to wander the halls, struggling to find her way back to the front door. She hadn't been paying attention to where they had gone the night prior in order to be able to leave today. Riven sighed loudly as she found herself at another dead end when she heard footsteps behind her, turning to look at the person. The sound came from a brunette woman, slender and tall with strikingly beautiful features.

"Are you my sister's most recent one night stand?" The woman asked with a smirk, hand on her hip.

"I guess so, my lady."

"My lady? How formal." While looking at the brunette, Riven could see the similarity between the two sisters, both of them very attractive with the same confidence that bordered on arrogance. "I'm Cassiopeia, and what is your name?"

"Riven, my lady."

"Interesting…" Cassiopeia said in a hushed tone before continuing, "I assume she didn't bother to show you the way out? Follow me." Riven quietly followed the brunette throughout the maze of a mansion and back to the front door. Once at the front door, Riven reached for the door handle when Cassiopeia stopped her, grabbing her wrist. "I have a few questions first." Riven looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "You really use that sword?" She asked, pointing at the zweihander Riven was carrying.

"Yes, my lady." Cassiopeia eyed her inquisitively before continuing.

"What company are you in?"

"Fury Company, I serve under Commander Finbar, my lady." Cassiopeia sighed slightly at Riven's constant usage of formal titles, but choosing not to bother stopping her.

"Friday evening I'll come find you at the barracks, you can take me to dinner."

"I'm sorry?" Riven questioned, confused by Cassiopeia's request enough to drop her formality.

"I'm curious about the woman that caught my sister's eye, is that enough reason for you?" Riven watched Cassiopeia's face for a few moments before nodding and opening the front door, making the strenuous trip back to the barracks. When Riven arrived back, Fin was hanging around the dining hall, waiting for Riven to explain her disappearance.

"Where have you been?"

"What? No hello?"

"Don't be smart with me, I sent you to take a report to High Command and you come back a day and a half later." Riven looked at Fin, examining his expression, he was doing his best to try be angry with her for her disappearance at least in front of the other men.

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'll explain." Riven tugged on his arm, leading him up to the floors with the soldiers rooms, once back inside her own room with the door closed she turned to him to explain, "When at High Command I ran into the General's daughter again, she asked me to meet her at a bar and then… you know." Fin rolled his eyes, trying to be as overt with his annoyance as possible.

"You chose not to listen to me."

"Don't worry, I won't be seeing her again, she has no interest in me." Riven said, choosing to leave out the part about Cassiopeia Du Couteau asking for them to meet tomorrow night. Fin ran his eyes over her for a moment.

"Fine. Can we at least pretend that I punished you for disappearing yesterday? Can't have them think I'm playing favourites." Riven nodded.

"I think I can at least do that."

"You better be sure that you're not seeing that woman again though." Fin warned, pointing his finger at Riven.

"Why do you care so much about whether I see her or not?"

"Because if that goes badly, I don't feel like having to deal with the issue of the General's daughter having issues with you." Fin said before making his exit, refusing to let Riven continue.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Riven gathered her clothing from the floor where the assassin had thrown them earlier in the evening and turned to the redhead who was also dressing herself.

"Why do you keep coming to visit me, my lady?" Katarina looked up at Riven while buckling her own belt.

"Does it really matter? Maybe you're just a good lay; don't read into it too much." The assassin grunted before making a move for the window. She had come to visit Riven this time, instead of her place like the last two nights they had met. Katarina had pursued her three nights in a row causing Riven to wonder if there was more to this than just sex like Katarina had insisted. Riven watched silently as Katarina climbed out the window, determined to make an exit without being spotted. It didn't take long after the assassin left for Riven to fall asleep.

Riven woke up the next day, grabbing her uniform from the end of the bed and dressing herself. She then headed down to the food hall on the bottom floor of the building. She sat herself down at a table by herself with a bowl of oats for her breakfast, picking at it slowly with a spoon before her training for the day. Fin quickly took a seat beside her, his own breakfast in hand.

After a few moments of them sitting in silence, Riven felt Fin's fingers on the collar of her shirt, pulling it down to expose some of the bite marks left by Katarina the night before. The sight was met with a frustrated noise from Fin.

"You saw her for a third night in a row? When you choose to ignore your commander's suggestions, you do it on another level."

"She keeps coming to see me, I don't seek her out." She murmured before taking another mouthful of her breakfast.

"Wait, she's coming to see you? Katarina Du Couteau, the Sinister Blade, is coming to see you?"

"Yes, what's your problem with that?"

"She has a… reputation for never seeing anyone more than once. I'm just surprised is all." Riven hummed in agreement, clearing her bowl and standing up to return it to the front of the food hall.

Riven spent the rest of her day training with Fin, sparring with him. It was frustrating for Riven and for the rest of the men in Fury Company when they went months without missions like this, stuck in the barracks and spending all day sparring with each other. It becomes a boring routine that they all fall into with time and it didn't seem like Fury Company would be going anywhere soon according to what Fin had been told in his brief meetings with General Du Couteau.

Riven headed back to her room earlier than normal from training as during her sparring with Fin, he had managed to cut her forearm and she needed to dress the wound. She also remembered Cassiopeia's instruction that she would be meeting her today for dinner and she needed to get herself ready. She fumbled through her trunk at the end of her bed, grabbing some bandages and her only surviving set of civilian clothing.

After Riven showered, she returned to her room and dressed her wound on her forearm. It wasn't a particularly bad wound, Fin had held back while striking her with his blade for a reason but she figured showing up to meeting with Cassiopeia with an open wound on her arm wouldn't go particularly well. She dressed herself in the few pieces of civilian clothing she still owned, the shirt frayed slightly at the hem and the pants with a hole where her knee was. Riven's attention was brought back from her clothing to the present when there was a knock at her door. Fin opened it, looking in at Riven.

"You have a visitor." He said and Riven could hear the tone of judgement in his voice. She knew that he had seen Cassiopeia downstairs, waiting for her.

"Thanks." Riven replied before grabbing her things and heading downstairs, not wanting to keep Cassiopeia waiting. She found the brunette waiting outside and even though they had met before Cassiopeia's beauty caught Riven off guard, running her eyes up and down the woman and her outfit, one clearly purposefully picked to be skin tight and tantalising.

"Lady Du Couteau." Riven greeted her. "I'm sorry if you had to wait a while." Riven watched as Cassiopeia ran her eyes over Riven's outfit, seeing the tearing and fraying of the material. Cassiopeia hummed to herself before beginning to walk away, expecting Riven to follow. Riven watched Cassiopeia walk away for a moment before realising she was expected to follow.

"Do you need money for some new clothes?" Cassiopeia asked her, running her eyes up and down her body again.

"I couldn't take your money, my lady." Cassiopeia wrapped her arms around Riven's right elbow, pulling the soldier in.

"You understand that us Du Couteau's are incredibly wealthy, yes? You don't have to worry about taking my money. Most people would be excited to take my money actually." Riven let Cassiopeia guide her through the streets of Noxus, choosing not to question where the brunette was planning to take her for the evening.

"I'm aware, but there's no point paying for clothes when I wouldn't have the chance to wear them." Cassiopeia made a noise that sounded like agreement before leading Riven into a restaurant that looked far too high end for the clothes she was wearing or any of her uniforms back at the barracks. Cassiopeia noticed Riven's hesitation to enter but pulled her through anyway, guiding her to a seat at a table the brunette had clearly reserved.

Cassiopeia passed Riven a menu that had been on the table, the presentation of the menu began to make Riven nervous. She was illiterate and kept that fact as a closely guarded secret, the only person who knew was Fin and it was only because he figured it out, not because Riven told him. She opened it, pretending to read it, stalling.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." Riven looked up, brought out of her trance.

"Yeah, I'm fine, my lady."

"You can't read, can you?" Riven turned beet red, how was Cassiopeia so observant to know from just seeing her attempt to read a menu.

"H-How did you know?"

"The look on your face when I passed you the menu, illiteracy is common with infantry soldiers." Riven put her menu down, no longer attempting to pretend like she could read it. "Besides…" Cassiopeia continued, walking her fingers up Riven's arm that rested on the table, catching the soldier by surprise, "I could always help you with that." The brunette finished, smirking across the table at her. Riven swallowed, she could very easily see the similarities between Katarina and Cassiopeia in this moment; they possessed same kind of sexual confidence, being fully aware of how they looked and what they made others feel.

Cassiopeia withdrew her hand from Riven's forearm when a waiter approached their table, taking the order from the brunette who ordered on Riven's behalf.

"Now, tell me more about yourself. I want to know why my sister likes you so much." Riven scoffed at the suggestion that Katarina has feelings for her.

"I don't think your sister even knows my name, my lady." Riven replied.

"Even if she hasn't asked you for your name, she's seen you three nights in a row and she never does that. So, tell me. Why are you so interesting, Riven?" Riven felt herself shudder slightly at the way Cassiopeia said her name before giving into the brunettes intense questioning. Throughout the entire dinner Cassiopeia asked personal questions, pressing Riven for answers that she eventually gave with the right encouragement whether that be a brush of Cassiopeia's foot up the side of her calf under the table or running her fingers up Riven's forearm. It wasn't until well after the dinner when Riven had returned to the barracks that it occurred to her how well Cassiopeia had managed to manipulate her into sharing things she never shared with anyone just by flirting with Riven. Riven figured that Cassiopeia was definitely far more cunning and manipulative than anyone gave her credit for.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Katarina waited impatiently sitting at the counter in the kitchen, tapping her fingernails on the marble surface. She was waiting for Cassiopeia to arrive home so she could get some answers. Katarina took a drink of her bourbon, eyes locked on the backdoor to their estate. Whenever she or Cassiopeia wanted to return home without being seen they would use the backdoor in the kitchen which allowed them to use the corridors of the mansion designed for staff to use. It meant they could get back to their own private rooms without running into anyone else, particularly their father.

Katarina put her glass of bourbon down as she saw the door knob jostle as it was being opened, Cassiopeia stepping into the kitchen. The brunette looked up, locking eyes with Katarina across the kitchen, raising her eyebrow at her.

"Waiting up for me?" Cassiopeia asked, amused at the idea of Katarina waiting for her to return home.

"Where have you been?"

"Why is that any of your business? I didn't realise you had become mother overnight." Cassiopeia laughed, walking around the kitchen counter and heading for the door to the staff stairs.

"Back off. Stop seeing her." Cassiopeia stopped before reaching the door, turning to face Katarina with her brow quirked.

"Stop seeing who?"

"You know who I'm talking about."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Enlighten me." Katarina narrowed her eyes at her sister, not responding to her. "You don't even remember her name, do you? Or maybe you never asked in the first place?" Cassiopeia laughed as Katarina looked away, admitting to not knowing Riven's name without even saying anything. "Are you already attached to a woman you don't even know the name of?" Cassiopeia laughed even harder.

"Fuck off, Cass."

"Did you see me having dinner with her, Kat?" Katarina threw her glass at Cassiopeia's head, missing by a few inches with it shattering against the wall. "Did you go to see her again tonight and she wasn't there because she was with me?" Cassiopeia laughed at Katarina again, earning a snarl from the redhead. "Maybe you should try talking to her if you like her so much. She opens up with the right encouragement." The brunette purred, the insinuation made by her causing Katarina to lunged at her. Cassiopeia darted through the door that leads to the staff stairs, getting away from her sister just in time. "Her name is Riven by the way!" She called out as she walked up the stairs to her room.

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Riven walked through the small alley ways between the buildings in the barrack grounds, heading back to her room. After she had finished having dinner with Cassiopeia, Riven had gone back to the training rooms to work out some of the frustration the brunette had left her with. Riven had discovered through her dinner with the woman that she was an insatiable flirt and tease, purposefully working Riven up and getting her to answer personal questions she normally wouldn't.

Riven stopped walking in the middle of the alleyway when she heard the sound of leather boots on the cobblestone path behind her. She turned, seeing Katarina standing there with one hand on her hip, lingering closely to the blades attached to her belt. The pair stood in silence for a few moments, staring at each other before Katarina moved towards Riven and backed her up against the wall.

Katarina's hands guided Riven to turn around, pressing her up against the wall face first. She felt the assassin's fingers undoing the straps that held her zweihander against her back, dropping the blade to the ground beside them. Katarina's mouth was hot on her neck, a mixture of kissing and biting on Riven's skin.

"Kat-" Riven was cut off by the assassin's hand moving quickly down the front her pants and into her underwear. Riven attempted to move away from the wall, to ask the redhead to take this to a place far less public, but Katarina met her attempts with pressing her hips against Riven's backside and forcing her tightly against the wall.

Riven bit her lower lip, attempting to stifle any moans that tried to escape her lips as Katarina drew ruthless circles with her hand down her pants. When Katarina picked up on Riven's attempts to remain quiet, the redhead sunk her teeth into the crook of Riven's neck, forcing Riven to finally make some noise.

"God, fuck, Katarina." The assassin continued her ministrations until Riven came, leaving the soldier weak in the legs. Katarina stepped back slightly, smirking at Riven as she began trying to do up her pants and gather herself.

"You know that's the first time you've called me anything other than by title." Riven turned to her, still catching her breath.

"I-I'm sorry, it won't happen again." She stammered out, still lost in the whirlwind of what had just happened.

"No, call me by my name, Riven." The assassin said before backing the soldier up against the wall yet again, running her hands possessively up Riven's sides.

"Why do you keep coming back?"

"Maybe I find you interesting."

"You don't even know anything about me, until just before I wasn't even sure you knew my name." Katarina smirked before backing away, leaving Riven by herself up against the wall and beginning to walk away. As she watched the assassin leave, Riven wondered to herself what she had gotten herself into, getting herself caught between the two Du Couteau sisters.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Riven felt her boots crunch against leaves on the ground as she headed back to the barracks, to her room, from a long day of training. They had seen her potential and kept pushing her further than all the other students, meaning she was getting back to her room long after dark when a lot of the other soldiers were drinking with their friends. She was exhausted and slumped her way up the flights of stairs before reaching her own small room, fiddling with the keys for a moment before walking inside and dumping her sword by the door.

She jumped slightly at the sight of someone sitting on the edge of her bed, only seeing the outline of their figure before quickly flicking the light on. Cassiopeia smirked at her, clearly glad that she had managed to surprise Riven.

"Lady Du Couteau, everything alright?" Riven asked, watching Cassiopeia stand up from her bed and walk towards her, only stopping a few steps away. Cassiopeia had always been incredibly beautiful, it was something that was hard to miss, but with the outfit she was wearing now, Riven's eyes slowly ran up and down Cassiopeia's body, earning a victorious smirk from the Du Couteau. The choice of clothing was purposeful.

"Yes, I've come to see you, Riven." She purred and took a step forward, causing Riven to step back into the wall behind her. Riven stared at her, wide eyed , as she removed the tight corset top, leaving her standing in front of the soldier shirtless. Riven felt a blush run across her cheeks, hesitating for just a moment before diverting her eyes elsewhere.

"M-My Lady." Cassiopeia closed the gap between them, one hand grabbing onto Riven's hip and the other running up her neck, cradling her jaw and turning Riven's face towards her.

"With what I'm about to do to you, you can call me Cass." She chuckled darkly, her hot breath hitting Riven's neck.

"C-Cass." Riven stammered.

"Yes?" She asked before pressing her lips to Riven's neck, eliciting a sharp exhale from the soldier.

"I-I can't." Riven wriggled in Cassiopeia's grasp, only half-heartedly fighting the Du Couteau's advances, before Cassiopeia chuckled.

"Is this about Katarina?" Riven said nothing, only responding with a nod, "Has she told you that she doesn't want you sleeping with anyone else?"

"Well, no-"

"Then it's not a problem, so be quiet." Cassiopeia went back to kissing Riven's neck while the hand on the soldier's neck slid down her chest and began undoing the uniform shirt Riven was wearing. With the flick of her hand, Cassiopeia had knocked the shirt off of Riven's shoulders, leaving her only in the wraps around her chest.

Riven's breathing quickened as Cassiopeia quickly yanked at the wraps, pulling them off and dropping them beside the shirt on the floor. The brunette's mouth moved quickly from her neck to her breasts, causing a small moan to escape from her as Cassiopeia's mouth took in one of her nipples. This lasted for a few moments before Cassiopeia pulled Riven towards the small bed in the corner of the room by her belt buckle, tossing her down and settling in behind her, spooning Riven.

Riven shuddered slightly at the feeling of Cassiopeia's chest pressing against her back, the brunette's left hand sneaking under and around her neck and her right around Riven's front, undoing her belt buckle. Cassiopeia's left hand secured itself around Riven's jaw, holding her still while her right entered her pants, sliding underneath her underwear, soliciting a slight gasp at the contact. The gasp turned into a loud moan as Cassiopeia began to run her finger over her clit.

"A sensitive one, you are." Riven felt the chuckle the brunette gave out against her neck before it turned to kisses. The finger on her clit began to run harsh circles, causing Riven to let out an animalistic whine. "Be quiet or your neighbours will hear." Riven tried to stifle her moans but she couldn't keep quiet, she cursed herself for being so easily turned on by both of the Du Couteau sisters, the way they handled her like soft clay in their hands.

"F-Fuck." Riven began gyrating her hips into Cassiopeia's touch, the brunette bit down on the spot where Riven's neck met with her shoulder and renewed the brand that Katarina had left her with the previous day, causing the soldier to shudder and moan loudly. It wasn't long before Riven came hard with Cassiopeia's touch.

The brunette continued until she felt Riven was done before withdrawing her hand from the soldier's pants; she lingered on the bed until Riven's breathing evened out then stood up. Cassiopeia grabbed her corset up off the floor before putting it back on, the soldier turning to her with a look of confusion on her face.

"You don't want me to return the favour?"

"No, I got what I wanted." Riven looked even more puzzled for a moment before giving a look filled with guilt and frustration. She'd been played by Cassiopeia, hard. Cassiopeia only came here in order to fuck with her sister, not because she has any actual interest in Riven. When the revelation sunk into Riven, Cassiopeia let out a chuckle before turning for the door.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

When Riven woke up and saw her room in the light of day again, she noticed something left on top of her trunk at the end of her bed that she hadn't seen the night before. She sat up in bed before moving to the end of it to get a closer look, realising it was a pile of clothing with a note left on top of it. Riven picked up the note, unfolding it before closing it again, she would need to get Fin to read it for her.

Riven got herself dressed quickly before heading down the hall to Fin's room. It was a little early but she figured that he would be awake anyway so she knocked on his door. The blond answered after a few seconds, looking at Riven and clearly still half asleep.

"What do you need?" Riven held out the note to him.

"I can't read it, what does it say?" Fin eyed her for a moment before taking the paper from her and unfolding it, skimming his eyes over it.

"It says, 'Thank you for keeping me entertained, plaything'." He looked at Riven before folding the paper and handing it back to her. "What's that all about? Something to do with Cassiopeia Du Couteau?"

"Yeah, something like that." Fin raised his eyebrow at her, silently but openly judging her.

"Before you go, today I need you to run some messages up to High Command again."

"Again? I just went there earlier this week." Fin laughed, grabbing some papers from his desk and handing them to Riven.

"Yes, again. I have to keep working with some of the newer additions to the unit; their blade work is still really bad. Keep yourself out of trouble this time please." He said with a smile before closing the door in Riven's face.

Riven sighed to herself as she found herself making the trip from the barracks to High Command for the second time that week. She couldn't wait to be in Fin's position, to make someone else do this trip for her and not the other way around. Once she reached the front gates of High Command it was a repeat of earlier in the week, the guard checking her papers and reluctantly letting her through and then getting somewhat lost inside the building itself. After reaching a few dead ends, getting herself lost in the hallways, she managed to find an area that looked similar to where she had gone earlier in the week.

"Lost?" A familiar voice asked her, causing Riven to look up from the papers in her hand. It was Katarina standing in the hallway in front of her, the sight of the redhead caused Riven's breath to catch in her throat.

"Yes." She murmured, letting Katarina guide her to General Du Couteau's office. Riven kept her distance from the assassin, not saying much either. Katarina gave her a few looks over her shoulder, trying to figure out why Riven was so awkward and stiff in her presence. Once the pair reached the door of Katarina's father's office, Riven murmured a thank you under her breath and entered, refusing to make eye contact with the assassin. Riven was relieved when she left the Generals office to see that Katarina had left already, not wanting to have another awkward interaction with the assassin.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Katarina banged the outside of her fist on Cassiopeia's bedroom door, trying to make as much noise as humanly possible until her sister answered the door. The brunette opened the door, peering out from behind it with an annoyed look on her face.

"What do you want?"

"What did you do?"

"What do you mean, what did I do?" Cassiopeia opened the door more, leaning up against the door frame.

"Riven was acting weird today. So let me ask you again, what did you do?" The corners of Cassiopeia's mouth twisted into a smirk, knowing that she had successfully provoked the assassin.

"Ah, that's what you're talking about. If you must know, I saw her again. She's a lot louder than I thought she would be." Katarina grit her teeth, her fingers tightening around the grip of one of her blades.

"Stay away, I already told you to back off."

"If it's any consolation, she seems to really like you. She was afraid of hurting your feelings, I think." Katarina stabbed her knife into the door frame near Cassiopeia's face.

"Fuck off, Cass."

"Tell her you don't want her to see anyone else; I've already had my fun provoking you. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going back to bed." The brunette said with a smirk before closing the door in Katarina's face. Cassiopeia knew exactly how to push Katarina's buttons and had always found entertainment in provoking the assassin even when they were still kids. She wasn't sure if Cassiopeia was serious when she said she was done having her fun just yet.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Riven spent most of her day sparring with the lower ranking members of Fury Company, Fin had asked her to do it to challenge them, to force them to improve. She had always been better than her fellow soldiers in combat, even picking up a zweihander for a weapon instead of a normal sword like the others. When she had chosen her weapon back in training she had been mocked for picking something so outdated and because she was smaller than the others, they had believed it impossible for her to learn to use it. Within a few months of picking the zweihander, she had proven them wrong, using it in sparring sessions to break swords and shields and if she had really wanted to she could have cleaved heads as well.

So when she trained with the lower ranking members of Fury Company, most of them yielded to her quickly, realising she was a force to be reckoned with. While the weight of the weapon should slow her down, she moved with a speed that surprised her opponents, giving her the time to use it in heavy blows. She showed the men of Fury Company that they had a long way to go if they wanted to move up in the ranks, Noxus valued strength for a reason.

Fin claimed he gave her the task because he had some important meeting to take care of but Riven figured he was sensing how bored and restless she was becoming. They hadn't had a mission in months, he most likely figured she was bored and the result was the mess she was getting herself in with the Du Couteau sisters. Riven guessed that Katarina had picked up on her unusual behaviour at High Command the day before and that Katarina wasn't the type to let things go, she suspected it would be far from over.

When Riven returned to her room for the night, having just showered, she found out she had been right. As she entered her room she was greeted with being thrown up against the door, a blade to her neck. Even though the room was pitch black she knew who was in front of her.

"Is it genetic for Du Couteau's to hide in other people's rooms to surprise them?" The snarky comment Riven made was met with a low growl.

"She came here?" She asked Riven, some sort of intense emotion flaring in her voice. Was it jealousy that she was hearing? She wondered.

"Yes." Riven answered bluntly.

"What happened?" Riven felt the blade pressed against the skin of her neck harder, a slow trickle of blood running down her neck.

"I think you already know what happened." Riven was surprised by the level of anger Katarina was showing, she had expected Katarina to view her much like her sister did, a plaything. She hadn't expected the assassin to develop any feelings for her, especially when Katarina barely knew her.

"That doesn't answer my question." The assassin snapped. Riven let out a small huff of protest before speaking anyway, she didn't particularly want to admit to what she already felt guilt about. Guilt that she couldn't really find a reason for, it's not like Katarina had ever shown much more than a sexual interest in her.

"She came here, waited for me in my room and then when I returned after training she fucked me." The assassin hesitated for a moment before withdrawing her dagger from Riven's neck, holstering it back on her belt. Her grip didn't withdraw, still forcing Riven up against the door though Riven could easily create space between the two of them if she really wanted to; she was far stronger than the assassin.

"This is the most informal you have ever been with me. Keep it that way." Katarina said, a look on her face that suggested there was supposed to be more meaning to that than what she had actually said though Riven was missing it.

"I don't get this. Why do you keep seeing me? You never see someone more than once from what I've heard." Katarina smirked slightly causing the hairs on Riven's neck stand up slightly, she hadn't realised how much she liked the smugness the assassin exuded.

"What? Don't you want me to come see you?" Katarina's fingers began tracing the top of Riven's belt buckle, teasing her skin and causing the soldier to divert her eyes.

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Katarina asked, a teasing tone in her voice as she leaned in, her mouth hovering over Riven's neck where the assassin's blade had cut into her minutes ago. Riven squirmed slightly under the attention, it was as if she had received tips from her sister about how to get information out of her.

"Why do you have feelings for me?" Katarina pulled away slightly, the smirk now gone. She didn't like the idea of being accused of having feelings, even if it were true.

"I'll be blunt. Don't see anyone else." The assassin said, moving away from Riven and heading back to the window where she had entered the room in the first place.

"You aren't going to answer my question?" Katarina rolled her eyes slightly at Riven before disappearing out the open window, leaving the soldier by herself up against the door.

A/N: Sorry for the unusually long time for me to update this, normally I don't take almost a week. I was working on my other fic Command and Obey but now expect this to be back on track with the fast updates. Please let me know what you're thinking through a review or PM. Thanks for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

After Katarina's appearance in her room in the barracks, the assassin remained distant for a few days, the longest period of time where Riven hadn't seen at least one of the Du Couteau sister's since this all started. Riven was both feeling relief and disappointment, relief because she was temporarily free from the confusion she felt every time she was near Katarina but also disappointed for the exact same reason.

Riven figured her boredom due to living in the barracks would be taken care of soon enough, Fin was constantly disappearing for meetings at High Command, something was moving even if Riven couldn't know what it was yet. She knew that she would be told soon enough and that it was most likely some sort of invasion campaign in hopes to gain more territory for Noxus, to solidify its strength.

It was currently the day before a holiday period in Noxus, this meant Riven and all other soldiers would have five days to do whatever they wanted, whether that be visiting family or something else. Riven had no family so she hated holidays like this, it meant staying in the barracks by herself for days with no one to spar with. She usually spent it doing drills out in the courtyard and sleeping. Fin always felt bad for leaving her to her own devices while he went and visited his family back in the city but she never let him stay, she didn't like to be pitied for being a street child.

When Riven returned to her room that night after training she found a letter left on her pillow, the window cracked open slightly told her that it was Katarina who had left it. Riven waited for Fin to return to the barracks from one of his meetings in order for him to read it to her. Once she heard walk down the hall and enter his room, she followed, knocking on his door. Fin looked exhausted, he had been spending the last few days walking back and forth between High Command and spending all day in these classified meetings.

"Could you read this for me?" She asked sheepishly, as much as she hated asking for help, she still hadn't learnt to read. Fin raised his eyebrow at her, obviously annoyed that he was being asked for help instead of being allowed to sleep but took the letter anyway, scanning the page with his eyes.

"She wants you to go stay at the Du Couteau estate for the holidays. I assume she doesn't know you can't read, you should probably tell her." He said, folding the paper back up and handing it back to her.

"I couldn't do that. Thanks anyway." She said before heading down the hall, letting Fin finally get some sleep. Riven scratched her head while standing in the doorway of her room, she had been invited to stay with Katarina for the next five days and a new sense of anxiety washed over her. She hadn't spent anything more than a brief few hours with the assassin and they had barely talked as it is, she was worried that Katarina would figure out just how low born she really was and would turn her nose up in disgust. Logically, she knew that Katarina would already have some idea about her background, but that didn't prevent her from worrying. She was somewhat grateful in this moment for the clothes that Cassiopeia had left her without asking for permission, she would need them for this.

Riven packed up her things, putting them into a somewhat frayed and torn backpack and grabbing her zweihander before heading out of the barracks. She arrived shortly before midnight, she figured she was expected to have arrived earlier than this but she was delayed by needing Fin to read the letter for her. She stood on the doorstep of the mansion and knocked.

Katarina answered the door, wearing something other than her normal work leathers for the first time in Riven's presence. Riven ran her eyes over the assassin, she was wearing some shorts and a singlet, most likely her nightwear. She had a somewhat unimpressed look on her face, obviously having expected her to arrive earlier than she did.

"You're late." She commented, still blocking the doorway.

"I know, I trained late and didn't see your letter until a couple of hours ago." Riven lied, trying to cover up her inability to read the letter left for her. Katarina ran her eyes over Riven before humming to herself, letting Riven inside. Riven followed the assassin throughout the halls of the mansion, taking the time to let her eyes wander as they walked, trying to commit the route to memory this time.

Once back in Katarina's private room, the assassin took a seat on the couch, watching as Riven put her bag down in the corner and rested her zweihander up against the wall next to it. She saw the state of some of Riven's belongings and raised a brow at it, though choosing not to comment. Riven took a seat on the other end of the couch, leaving space between the two of them. Katarina had her eyes on Riven, waiting for the soldier to say something, to begin talking and fill the awkward silence. Riven could sense that Katarina didn't speak to people very often, especially not people she wants to keep around, she was waiting for Riven to do the work for her. Riven chose to keep quiet, wanting to see if Katarina would speak first.

"I'm going to bed." Katarina said, forcing herself up off the couch. "You can join me, or don't, whatever." She continued before walking over to the bed, lying down and pulling the covers over her body. Riven watched Katarina for a moment before moving to where the bed was, undressing slightly and climbing into bed beside the assassin. She could tell Katarina didn't like to feel vulnerable, and not knowing what to talk about or how to talk to Riven had made her feel that way. This was going to be difficult.

A/N: I've been experiencing some issues with this website where it errors when I upload new chapters, it will post the new chapter but won't send out a notification to say it has been updated. So if you aren't receiving notifications about my updates, I'm sorry, I'm still waiting to hear back from the support team. Hopefully I can get it fixed soon.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

The awkward silence between the pair continued into the next day, Katarina still at a loss for how anything more than a one night stand works. Riven half expected the assassin to tell her to go home but instead Katarina asked her to spar with her.

"Spar with me. Show me what you can do with that sword of yours." Katarina smirked at Riven's hesitation to spar with her. "What, are you afraid? Is that big sword just a show you put on?" Katarina's arrogant tone did exactly what it was meant to, baiting Riven into exactly what she wants her to do. Riven was only hesitating because she didn't think Katarina would be able to cope with losing but that didn't matter now, she wanted to show Katarina her strength.

"Fine." She responded bluntly, heading across the room and grabbing the hilt of her zweihander. Katarina grabbed her blades from the table in the middle of the room and left the room, leading Riven down to the training rooms that had been built for Katarina to use.

Once inside the room, Riven took a ready stance, wielding her zweihander with her right hand. Katarina stalked around her, blades in hand with a predatory look in her eyes, looking for the right moment to engage. After a few moments the assassin darted in for her opening, only to be met with Riven's blade against hers, a look of surprise flashing across her face. Katarina hadn't expected Riven to be as fast as she was with a blade of that size. Riven put her weight behind her weapon and forced Katarina back before taking a swing upwards, as if she was planning to cleave Katarina's head from her neck.

Katarina upped her speed, attempting to get through Riven's guard but the soldier was stronger and faster than she had anticipated. It made her wonder why Riven wasn't the actual commander of Fury Company. Eventually her persistence gave her the results she wanted, a gash on Riven's forearm. The injury didn't cause Riven to pause however; she took Katarina's second of inward gloating to leave her with a similar wound on her upper arm, cutting through the leathers. The wound caused adrenaline to run through the assassin's veins, she knew Riven could have done a lot more than just cut her arm, she easily could have cleaved right through her shoulder had she really wanted to.

Katarina came back in, this time aiming for the back of Riven's calf, hoping to bring the soldier to her knees somehow. Riven moved in a way that surprised Katarina, she dropped her sword and grabbed Katarina by her collar, pulling her up before her blade could connect with her leg and threw her across the room. The assassin attempted to move quickly to get away, to get off the floor and off her back but before she knew it Riven was on top of her, her zweihander sunk into the wooden floor of the training room right by her head. Had Riven really meant to kill her she would more than certainly be dead, her head suffering the fate of the floor boards.

The assassin could feel her pulse racing in her ears; she licked her lips as she looked up at the soldier who held her pinned to the floor. Part of her was angry with herself for losing to Riven but part of her was aroused by being beneath this unbelievably strong woman.

"Lock the door." She commanded Riven. The soldier hesitated for a moment before standing up and following her order. Katarina stood up from the floor and sat on the edge of the table at the end of the room, removing her leather jacket and crop top. Katarina briefly examined the wound on her arm before turning back to the soldier who was now standing in front of her, running her amber eyes over her chest, showing that she was feeling the exact same hunger that Katarina was feeling.

Riven pressed her lips against Katarina's neck hungrily, her right hand grabbing onto her bare waist and pulling the assassin in. Katarina gripped her fingers in Riven's hair, spurring the soldier on, she hadn't been this aggressive with Katarina before. Riven kissed down her front, taking one nipple into her mouth as she began to undo Katarina's leather pants, tugging them down past her hips and thighs. Katarina laid back on the table as Riven removed her boots and pulled her pants off completely, leaving her bare in front of Riven.

The soldier climbed up onto the table with her, Riven's had quickly moving between her legs and rubbing harsh, ruthless circles on Katarina's clit while her mouth was pressed to the wound on Katarina's arm. The assassin let out a low groan at the touch and at the searing pain of Riven's mouth on her wound, cursing to herself about how much it turned her on. Normally she liked to be the one in control but seeing Riven this commanding and aggressive was bringing her undone faster than she would like.

Katarina dug her fingernails into Riven's neck and shoulders, the soldier rewarding the painful marks she was giving out by more attention to her clit. The assassin arched her back up into the woman on top of her, before watching Riven move herself down and replace her fingers with her mouth on Katarina's clit, pressing her fingers into her entrance instead.

"Fuck!" She cried out as Riven ruthlessly pushed her closer to the edge, pulling on the soldier's ashen hair. Riven's free hand clamped over her mouth, keeping her quiet as she orgasmed, not wanting to give away to anyone within ear shot what they might be doing even if the door was locked. Riven pulled away, looking down at the now breathless assassin lying beneath her, Riven didn't emote much but Katarina could see the signs of a small satisfied smirk on her face.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Riven quietly worked away, dressing the wound on Katarina's upper arm. After the events that had come after their sparring session, Riven had managed to convince Katarina to come back upstairs to her private quarters to let her dress the wound on her arm, feeling some degree of guilt after the heat of the moment was gone. Apart from the scar that bisected her left eye, Katarina had very few scars unlike Riven, she felt bad for wounding the assassin and most likely leaving her with a deep scar on her arm. Katarina hissed slightly as she pressed salve into the wound.

"Tell me about yourself." Katarina instructed once the pain had subsided. Riven looked up from her task for a moment, making brief eye contact with the assassin.

"What do you want to know?" She asked before pulling away, having completed dressing Katarina's wound and now turning to take care of the one on her own forearm.

"Anything. Everything. Whatever." Katarina said, shrugging her shoulders slightly to appear nonchalant. When Riven didn't respond, not knowing where to start or what to share, Katarina continued. "What's your last name?"

"Don't have one. Have to have a family to have a last name." Riven said, grunting slightly as she dressed her own wound tightly and then turned to face Katarina on the couch, giving the assassin her undivided attention.

"You're a street child?" The way Katarina said this made Riven bristle, annoyed.

"I don't want to talk about it." Riven could feel a creeping sense of embarrassment, she didn't like the idea of Katarina knowing her background when the assassin was of high born status, she didn't want to be judged.

"Is that why they won't promote you? Is that why that guy is commander of Fury Company and not you?" Riven looked away from Katarina, giving the assassin her answer. While Riven liked Fin and he was her only friend in the military and outside it, when he had been picked for the position over her months ago she knew it wasn't because he was ready for it and she wasn't or because he was stronger than her. Even though Noxus didn't put as high a value on status as some place like Demacia, it was enough of a value to mean that Riven couldn't be promoted when someone like Fin, who while not high born was well off enough, was around. She had done her best not to resent him for it, knowing that it wasn't his fault for her past or for how Noxus functions. "I'll take that as a yes, then." Katarina continued.

"Why am I here?" Riven asked, looking up at Katarina, turning the questioning back onto the assassin.

"Do you not want to be?" Katarina deflected.

"Answer the question." Riven said, a slight smirk on the corner of her lips, knowing that Katarina was avoiding the question to hide her interest, her feelings for Riven. Katarina locked eyes with her, narrowing them before scoffing and looking away.

"Fine. Maybe I like you. I think you're interesting."

"Was that so hard?" Katarina let out a low grunt as Riven stood up. "Now, where's the bathroom? I want to take a bath." Katarina gestured towards the bathroom door on the other side of the room, letting Riven find her way to it and run her own bath.

Once Riven was unable to see Katarina, the assassin headed out of her own private room and down the hall to the room that belonged to her sister, knocking loudly. The brunette opened the door and glared out at her from behind the door, an eyebrow raised.

"What?" Cassiopeia asked, annoyed with the interruption by her sister.

"I know you can't resist getting involved in my business so I assume you did more than sleep with her. What do you know about her?" Cassiopeia ran her eyes over her sister's face.

"Maybe you should ask her about herself."

"I did, she already refused."

"You must lack sex appeal then. Just one moment." Katarina scoffed at the insult as she waited for Cassiopeia to return to the door, folder in hand. "I got a few answers out of her by flirting with her but I got the rest from some digging into her military files and some spying I had done." She passed the file over to Katarina before crossing her arms across her shoulders.

"You did all this out of pure curiosity?" Katarina asked as she flicked through the surprisingly lengthy folder.

"There's been nothing to do at High Command lately, I needed something to keep me entertained and messing with you always does that. Anyway, what you'll find is mostly that she was left on the streets at a young age, she joined the military as soon as she could. Her medical profile from when she joined showed her to be severely underweight and had various untreated conditions which they treated before they let her begin her training. There's more detail in the folder, can I go back to what I was doing now?" Katarina let out a low grunt as her response as she walked away, folder in her hands, her eyes glued to the page.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Riven emerged from the bathroom after her bath dressed in some of the clothes Cassiopeia had given her. Katarina was sat on the couch, flicking through a folder on her lap.

"Anything interesting?" Riven asked absent-mindedly as she ran her fingers through her damp hair.

"You can't read?" Katarina asked, looking over her shoulder back at Riven, catching the look of surprise on the soldier's face turn to embarrassment.

"How'd you find out?"

"Cassiopeia. She did a lot of research on you." Katarina said, holding up the folder briefly before flicking through the pages some more.

"You couldn't leave it be?" Riven asked, looking away from Katarina, refusing to make eye contact.

"Nope. Tell me about your past."

"Why bother? You have a file right there with everything in it."

"I want to make sure my sister got it right." Riven let out a loud sigh, pinching at the bridge of her nose before lifting her eyes from the floor, making eye contact with the assassin.

"I was left on the streets when I was really young. Maybe five or six years old, I don't know. I don't remember anything from before that. I don't even know my actual birthday, I've just picked one. I don't have a last name because I don't know who my parents were or are. I starved and stole food to survive. Happy?" Katarina looked away, a small pang of guilt building up at the sound of Riven's tone. She closed the folder and placed it aside onto the coffee table. The assassin had no clue how to fix the situation, the silence and tension continued until there was a brief knock at the door.

"Come in." Katarina called out, a maid appearing at the door.

"There is a soldier at the front door looking for someone called Riven, my lady." Katarina raised her eyebrow at Riven before turning her eyes back to the maid.

"Can you take her to the door to speak to him?" The maid nodded, waiting for Riven to follow her down the halls. The maid lead Riven down the seemingly endless halls of the mansion, bringing her eventually back to the front door, a soldier patiently waiting in the doorway. It wasn't someone Riven recognised; from the uniform she guessed he was a messenger for High Command.

"What do you need?" Riven asked the man in front of her before he passed her a letter. "What's it say?" She asked this knowing the messengers usually read every letter they carried even if it was classified.

"General Swain is requesting your presence at High Command for a one on one meeting." Riven fumbled with the letter, opening it to check the stamps on the inside, finding Swain's insignia.

"When?"

"As soon as you can arrive."

"I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll leave within the hour." The messenger nodded before turning, heading down the front steps that lead up to the Du Couteau mansion.

Riven turned back inside, pulling the front door closed behind her and slowly making her way back to Katarina's private room. Her mind was racing, thoughts wondering about why Swain could be asking for her to appear, Riven was only a low ranking soldier, only second in command in her company. There should be no reason why Swain would want to speak to her. Katarina picked up on Riven's mood as soon as she entered her room, running her eyes curiously over Riven.

"What is it?" The assassin asked, letting an expression of concern slip.

"General Swain has sent for me, asking me to come to High Command for a meeting as soon as possible." Riven said as she began gathering the few belongings she needed for her short trip. "I should be back in a couple of hours at the latest." She gripped the hilt of her zweihander tightly.

"Okay." Katarina replied, watching Riven pace back and forth with her blade in hand. "You look like you've seen a ghost." She commented.

"There's no reason why Swain would want to speak to me, I'm nobody. I don't even think he would speak to Fin one on one." Katarina forced herself up off the couch, crossing the room to the soldier, making an awkward attempt at being comforting, something the assassin never did.

"It'll be fine." Riven nodded, accepting the awkward hand placed on her shoulder before turning to the door, heading off to High Command.

The trip to High Command was far shorter from the Du Couteau mansion; it was less than half an hour's walk. Riven handed her letter to the guards standing out by the front gates before being allowed to step inside. After a few minutes of walking through the surprisingly empty halls of High Command, Riven put it to the holidays and the fact that it was night, she found herself standing outside Swain's office, knocking quickly before entering. Swain stood behind his desk, looking up at Riven as she entered.

"You made it here quickly. Good."

"What was it that you needed to speak to me about, sir?"

"I have a request to make of you."

A/N: Hi guys, I believe I've fixed the issue of notifications not being sent out. Please let me know if you're still not receiving notifications that I've posted.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

"A request, sir?" She asked Swain, standing on the other side of the desk across from him, waiting patiently.

"Yes, you can take a seat if you like." When Riven made no indication of planning to move to take a seat, the General continued, "I have heard you are quite close to Commander Finbar. I am also aware of how you were passed over for his rank due to your past." Riven looked away from Swain, trying to hide her own anger flaring at hearing it out loud, hearing a superior admit to what they had denied what was rightfully hers. "I'm giving you the opportunity to take back what's yours."

"What's mine, sir?" She didn't like the sound of what he was suggesting; she doubted Swain planned to promote Fin in order to make room for her.

"Yes. The rank of Commander of Fury Company was meant to be yours. We all know it, but even Noxus isn't immune to giving into status and wealth."

"And what would you have me do, sir?" She asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"It's currently a holiday period in Noxus, no one is staying at the barracks apart from you and Fin. I made sure he couldn't return home this time like he normally does; take this opportunity to take him out." Riven inhaled quickly, diverting her eyes to the floor. Swain was asking her to kill her only friend in order for her to get what she wants. She wanted to lose her temper, to tell him where to put his offer but she knew that while this was an offer, it was far from an optional one. Swain would most likely have her killed if she refused, the General couldn't have people finding out that he had asked for this. It made Riven wonder what he would gain from making such an offer.

"Why would you want this?" She asked with anger in her tone, her formality dropping.

"Let's just say, I don't believe Fin should be the Commander of Fury Company when someone so much more… talented is his second in command. I see you going far Riven, I want to give you the opportunities to do so and maybe one day you will return the favour." Riven let out a sigh, this was a way for Swain to have his claws dug into someone before they rise through the ranks, to have people who are forced into being his allies. After a few moments of silence between them, Riven made her decision.

"How do you want me to do it?" Riven attempted to steady her hands, she could feel them shaking at her sides, not sure whether it was fear or anger that was the cause.

"You make sure you take care of it alone, hide the body and I will send someone to take care of it." Riven nodded before taking the opportunity to leave, not wanting to be anywhere near Swain any longer.

Riven began heading back to the barracks, purposefully dragging her feet, extending the time before she had to do what she was asked. Just the fact that she had accepted his offer made her feel disgusted with herself, whether he left Riven without a choice or not, she knew that she wanted to be a commander over anything else. Something in the back of her mind wanted this, enough of a want for her to know she would never forgive herself for it.

She wandered around the barracks, trying to take her time in finding Fin, hoping that maybe he would be a sleep and wouldn't see what was coming. The fact that she was hoping he would never know it was her that ended his life so he would never hate her only intensified her feeling of guilt. Of course, Riven wasn't that lucky, finding Fin sitting in the empty dining hall at a table despite how late at night it was with a book in hand. Fin looked over his shoulder at the sound of Riven's leather boots against the wooden floor, a look of surprise on his face.

"I thought you were supposed to be staying at the Du Couteau mansion?" He asked, putting his book on the table. Riven took a few more steps towards him, placing a hand on the hilt of her zweihander, hesitating to draw her weapon. "Riven?" He asked, a slight tone of concern in his voice, fearing what was coming next and beginning to stand up.

Riven closed her eyes as she sunk her blade into Fin's shoulder, pulling it down into his chest. Fin dropped to his knees, gasping as blood began to fill his lungs and dripping from the corners of his mouth. Riven forced her eyes back open, not wanting to forget the horrible decision she had made, looking Fin in the eyes. The look of betrayal on his face caused tears to begin streaming down her face.

When Fin let out his last breath, Riven pulled her zweihander backwards, removing it from its place in Fin's chest. She sheathed it back over her shoulder and picked up the body of her dead friend, taking his body back to his room upstairs, choosing to hide it there for whoever Swain sends to find it. Riven placed his body on the floor in the corner, away from the door. She stood over him, looking down and committing her own disgusting act to memory. After a while she wiped away the remainders of her tears and left.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

When Riven returned to the Du Couteau mansion it was in the early hours of the morning, shortly before dawn. A maid answered the door, saw Riven standing at the door with blood on her clothes and immediately went to tell Katarina about her arrival. The assassin clambered down the stairs quickly, meeting Riven at the front doorway.

"Where the hell have you been?" Katarina demanded, stopping in front of Riven when she saw the state Riven was in, her eyes running over Riven looking for wounds to explain the blood. "What happened?" Riven managed to force her eyes up from the floor, looking at Katarina.

"I've been promoted." Katarina's face twisted with confusion at the statement for a few moments until she connected the dots, putting together the blood on Riven's clothing with her new promotion.

"Oh." Katarina let out, not sure how to respond to Riven. She figured Riven wouldn't want to be congratulated on her promotion but she also didn't know how to comfort her either. The soldier didn't need to tell her what had happened; she knew the inner workings of High Command well enough to figure it was something Swain had his hands all over.

Katarina lead Riven back up to her private quarters in silence, not wanting to push the soldier. She knew how close Riven had been to Fin, Katarina knew without Riven telling her that Swain would have forced her hand into doing it. What the assassin didn't know was how Riven would cope with it, she had seen many soldiers be asked to prove loyalty to Noxus, to Swain, through horrible acts and many couldn't live with the guilt of what they had done.

Once back in Katarina's room, the assassin removed Riven's zweihander from her back, pushing her towards the bathroom and running her a bath. She would have to speak to Cassiopeia about replacing the clothes she had given to Riven as these had been stained with blood. Katarina removed Riven's blood stained clothes, placing them aside to throw away later before helping the soldier into the bath. The soldier's demeanour had changed greatly since hours ago, Riven had never been particularly chatty or loud before now but now she didn't speak at all, she sat complacently in the bath, letting Katarina do whatever she wanted without protest or any kind of response.

Katarina helped Riven out of the bath once she was free from blood, helping her redress before taking her back to the bed, trying to get the soldier to get some sleep. All Riven did in response was curl up on the mattress and stare out into nothing, not responding to anything Katarina said. The assassin watched Riven from afar for a while before getting up the courage to lie on the bed behind her, putting her arms around Riven in her own awkward attempt to comfort her.

The assassin fell asleep eventually, having attempted to stay awake until Riven fell asleep. She wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep but when she woke up it was light outside; she woke up to the sound and feeling of Riven crying. At first she wasn't sure what she was hearing but when she lifted her head off the pillow, looking at the soldier as she cried. When Riven noticed Katarina staring at her, she quickly wiped at her face and attempted to hide her tears, not wanting to display weakness to the assassin.

"He asked you to kill your friend." Katarina stated in a way that was simultaneously blunt and gentle, trying to convey her understanding to the soldier.

"Yes." Riven responded, murmuring into the pillow, trying to hide from Katarina her shame and guilt. Katarina lay there, trying to figure out what to say next, what she should say to try and comfort Riven. She had never done something like this before, she never saw the people she slept with more than once and she definitely didn't let them stay over to get to know them better but she could feel herself getting attached to Riven and wanting to comfort her.

"You know that you had no choice, right?" She forced out, trying to fill the silence her hesitation had created. Riven didn't respond to her question, only bringing her knees up to her chest and burying her face into her knees. "Even if you felt like you had a choice, Swain wouldn't have let you live if you stood up to him." Riven chose not to respond to her again.

Katarina kept her arms around Riven, not sure what to do now next, how do you comfort someone who doesn't want to be told they aren't guilty? Cassiopeia would be far better at this than her, her sister had always had a way with words and persuasion. Katarina continued to hold the soldier until she caved into sleep, letting herself do the same.

The rest of Riven's stay at the Du Couteau mansion largely went by without event; she remained mostly silent as she processed what she had done. Katarina never let herself become concerned with other people and their business but she felt herself worrying about Riven, she seemed to be far from coping with what had happened, blaming herself for everything and believing she had a choice, that having let herself be killed would be the better option. When Riven packed her things and headed to leave, she turned to Katarina and asked her a question.

"How do I go back?" She asked, looking Katarina in the eyes for the first time in hours, "How do I lead people after what I've done?" Katarina pursed her lips for a moment, considering her reply. She wasn't sure what to tell the soldier or what she wanted to hear, did she want Katarina to tell her that she didn't deserve to lead?

"You'll do it and survive because you have to. You deserve to be a Commander, even if you don't like how you received the promotion." Riven stared at her blankly, processing her response, causing Katarina to cringe internally at her own words. She had never been good at this kind of thing. She watched from the doorway as Riven slowly began her trip back to the barracks.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Several months had passed since Fin had died, only one week after his death, Swain and the other Generals had given her a rune sword in order to replace her zweihander. It didn't take long for Riven to master the weapon, they had replicated the measurements of her previous weapon even down to the exact weight. She also stayed up most nights running drills with the new weapon; she didn't sleep that well anymore. They had moved her into Fin's old room in the barracks, the Commander's quarters, and every time she went into her room the image of Fin's body on the floor was brought back to mind, guilt eating at her every day. Whenever she tried to sleep at night, nightmares always found her, the only relief she found was when she got the chance to sleep at the Du Couteau mansion.

Riven was surprised that Katarina continued to want to see her after Fin's death, she's not the same as she was before, she expected that Katarina would have cut her off after becoming a burden but the assassin refused to acknowledge that there was a problem. Katarina just continued to let Riven come and go as she pleased, letting her have space whenever she needed it, and making awkward but earnest attempts to comfort her. She knew that Katarina was trying her best but emotions and comfort were something that she was far from good at dealing with, she still refused to admit what she felt for Riven despite them being together for almost a year. The closest Katarina had gotten to admitting her feelings was telling Riven not to see anyone else.

For the past few weeks, Riven had been having meetings constantly with other commanders of different companies and with the Generals about the beginnings of an invasion into Ionia in an attempt to weaken the nation and claim more land for Noxus. They hadn't been informed yet on when these plans would take place but with the pace of the meetings, Riven figured it would be soon.

Riven woke up just before dawn and began her trip to High Command, she had yet another meeting to discuss plans for Ionia. Luckily Katarina had told her she could stay whenever she had to travel to High Command instead of returning immediately. With her new uniform, she was now wordlessly let into the building by the guards, her rank as commander being acknowledged. She and the other commanders filled into the meeting hall, gathering around a table covered in maps of Ionia and its borders, waiting patiently for Swain to make his appearance.

The meeting seemed to drag on for hours, the highlights of which included Swain telling them all they would be working with Zaun though he was purposefully vague about how and he informed them that they would be moving out in just over a week. Fury Company would begin their invasion from the southern border and push their way in through the small villages and head in towards the Placidium over the span of a couple of months. Hopefully she would be able to return to Noxus within a year, she knew Katarina wouldn't be pleased to hear that. Riven may be able to return for Snowdown if the invasion is going well enough but she couldn't make any promises to the assassin.

Riven appeared on Katarina's doorstep shortly after nightfall, preparing to give her the bad news of her leaving for several months. She expected that Katarina may just break things off with her, not wanting to wait around for Riven for the chance that maybe they would be able to see each other throughout if Katarina left on a mission or Riven returned for Snowdown in the winter. She didn't expect Katarina to want to take the emotional risk of holding onto Riven in case she didn't return, something that was very possible, not everyone got to return from invasions and war like this.

"Another meeting at High Command?" Katarina asked her as she let Riven inside the mansion and walked with her up to her private room.

"Yeah." Riven replied, letting silence sit between them for a few moments before they entered the bedroom where Riven continued, "I have some bad news."

"What is it?" Katarina asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"They're moving forward on the Ionian invasion, they'll probably tell you in the next few days. I leave in just over a week."

"Any idea how long they believe the invasion will take?" The assassin gnawed her lip between her teeth, not liking the idea of Riven disappearing.

"Several months, possibly a year." Katarina's displeasure at the sound of how long Riven would be away was made clear through a lack of response. "I might be able to come back for Snowdown." Riven offered, trying to make things better, not wanting Katarina to end things with her over this.

"Maybe I'll be sent out on a mission or two where I'll be able to stop by and see you."

"Maybe." Riven responded with a small smile.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

It had been over six months since Riven left Noxus. Katarina had been following her and her position in Ionia through reports received from the frontlines. She hadn't heard from the soldier since she left, she would have expected something like a letter but she knew that Riven couldn't read or write. Katarina was secretly holding out for Riven returning to Noxus for Snowdown which was only a few weeks away, the invasion was going well enough that Katarina believed that she would be able to return, even if it were only for two weeks. She hoped that Cassiopeia and others couldn't see how much she wanted Riven to return or how much she missed the soldier; desperately following the reports she forced one of the Generals to send to her as soon as they received it.

For months she had been trying to get herself assigned assassination missions inside Ionia but her father and the other Generals kept getting her sent to Demacia instead, trying to keep the Demacians from getting themselves involved with the conflict in Ionia. Riven seemed to be doing as well as Katarina had expected from her, knowing that Riven was meant to be a commander, even if the way she had received her promotion changed her and left her riddled with guilt. It caused the soldier a lot of internal conflict and Katarina had noticed, Riven was far more patriotic than she wanted to openly admit and the idea that she was forced by the nation she loves into murdering her only friend in cold blood caused her to feel some resentment.

Katarina had chosen to pretend for months that she hadn't noticed how much Commander Finbar's death had affected Riven. She let Riven get away with ignoring her nightmares and how little sleep she was getting. It caused Katarina to worry at times that Riven may be fighting in Ionia on no sleep, a fatal wound just waiting to happen but so far the soldier seemed to be surviving. Katarina didn't hope much but she hoped that Riven would just make it to the end of the invasion campaign so Katarina could convince her to do something else, to leave the military, even if it would most likely be in vain.

A week before Riven was meant to return to Noxus for Snowdown, Katarina received another report. A messenger sent by Swain himself appeared on Katarina's doorstep covered in snowflakes, showing his urgency to Katarina through his appearance. He gave Katarina the letter, averting his gaze, knowing the contents as all messengers did. A sense of dread filled her as she held it, most likely knowing what news she was about to be given. She closed the front door, choosing to take the chance to have privacy.

She waited until she was back in her private room to open it, her hands shaking. It was a report from the frontlines, declaring Riven as missing in action and most of her company killed in action. It continued to say that while they couldn't find Commander Riven's body, she was most likely killed, buried in snow somewhere. Katarina hated the way they wrote off Riven, not even choosing to look for her even if she knew logically they couldn't spare the men it would take just to bring back her soldier's body. It pained her, knowing Riven most likely died from blood loss in the snow, freezing to death. She felt guilt, never telling Riven how she really felt because she became confident, thinking that the soldier knew what she was feeling without having to actually say it, believing that Riven would always come back from the front alive because she was good and strong. Noxus' philosophy promised that if you were strong, you would always win. Riven was strong but she died some sad, unnecessary death in the freezing winter of Ionia. It made Katarina change her mind about strength; finding out it was mostly luck that brought men back from the frontlines and Riven had just run out of hers.

A/N: So that is the end of part one. I'll be posting the first chapter of part two soon, I'll be posting them here in this story so don't worry about following something else to find the new chapters. My one shot fic A Noxian in Bilgewater takes place between part one and two of these stories for future reference, you don't have to read it but it will probably help :D Please leave reviews or pm me to let me know what you think and what you're hoping to see, it really helps to know what everyone is looking for and what you're all thinking.


	17. Part Two: Chapter 1

Part two

Chapter 1:

Katarina sighed audibly as she unlocked the door to her champion's quarters in the Institute of War. She, Cassiopeia and Talon plus other high profile Noxians were forced into joining the league on behalf of Noxus after all the failure of the Ionian invasion years ago. While it annoyed Katarina to have to fight in pointless battles that amounted to nothing on a regular basis, it was better than staying in Noxus waiting for a mission and trying to entertain herself by bringing some random woman back to her place like she always did.

It had been almost six years since Riven had disappeared in the invasion of Ionia; even though the soldier was almost definitely dead she still refused to think it, thinking of her as just missing in action like the last report said she was. She was stuck in a sort of limbo, not really ready to move on from Riven by committing to someone else but not remaining celibate either, using random women she found in bars to satisfy herself from time to time. The closest thing she had to a sustained relationship was her friendship with Sarah Fortune, whom she slept with on occasion when the need arose.

Her champion quarters were half-heartedly decorated with Noxian banners and the Du Couteau coat of arms. While she still remained loyal to Noxus and took on the missions given to her, executing them with perfection, however after Riven disappeared it was all just to survive. She spent a lot of her time putting up her façade; making people including her sister believe she was still as patriotic as she was years ago. Katarina had spent a lot of money in order to make her champion's quarters more comfortable and lavish than most others, using it to hide away from Noxus in style.

Katarina stripped herself of her work leathers and forced herself into the bath, she was covered in sweat from a long day on the rift and exhausted from trying to ignore the fanfare of a new champion being inducted into the league. Any time someone new was brought in it would be the only thing everyone would talk about for days, possibly even weeks depending on who it was, trying to find out more information about this person. All Katarina knew from the rumours was this woman was known as the Exile and that's all felt like finding out, rumours and gossip was far from something that entertained her. She was pulled out of her thoughts by a knock on the front door of her quarters.

"Who is it?" She called out from the bathroom.

"It's Sarah." Katarina chewed her lip, she wasn't really in the mood for company at the moment but she could make an exception for Sarah.

"Come in, I'm in the bath." Sarah let herself in and headed into the bathroom, Katarina didn't bother covering herself up in front of the bounty hunter, she had seen Katarina naked before. "What do you need Sarah?" She asked the redhead, leaning forward and resting her arms along the edge of the bath.

"Want to come to Gragas' bar with me tonight? He's trying out a new recipe for a drink and anyone willing to try it gets to drink for free." Katarina hummed to herself, considering the offer. The sound of getting very drunk was appealing to her, especially when it involved Sarah Fortune, it would most likely end with them fucking like always and she wasn't about to say no to that.

"Fine, when do you want me to meet you there?"

"Seven should be fine. It looks like you could use the drink. Bad day?" Katarina let out a low grunt as her response, Sarah knowing she didn't particularly want to talk about it. "Have you met the new champion?" The bounty hunter asked with a twinge of nervousness that made Katarina suddenly pay attention, curious.

"No, I don't really care for things like that. I have heard everyone gossip about her though."

"I see." Sarah responded, averting her eyes to the tiled floor of Katarina's bathroom before continuing, "I'll see you at seven then." She said before leaving, closing the door behind her. Sarah's demeanour confused Katarina, it made her wonder who the new champion could be and how Sarah knew her if the topic made her act the way she did. Katarina sunk down in the bath, letting the water cover her body entirely, she figured she would be able to force the reason for her behaviour out of the bounty hunter with enough drinks and flirtatious encouragement.

Katarina spent the few hours before meeting Sarah at Gragas' bar by slowly getting ready and watching some terrible drama show produced in Piltover on the TV she had imported. It was truly an awful show but she couldn't stop watching it, she hid it from her sister though, Cassiopeia would never let her live it down if she found out what she liked to watch in her free time.

After a while she found herself sitting at the end of her bed on the floor, going through the chest of belongings that Riven had left behind in her commander's quarters back in Noxus. Swain had known about their relationship though Katarina never knew how for sure, she figured most likely through spies, and had given her Riven's belongings in the week that followed the soldier being declared missing in action. They had already promoted someone else to Riven's position and needed to clear out her things in case he ever needed her room, knowing this when she received Riven's things had initially made her furious though now whenever she saw the chest she would become depressed and find herself digging through it, it made her feel pathetic.

Katarina forced herself up off the floor, pushing the chest of Riven's belongings back under her bed to be kept out of sight in case anyone were to enter her room without permission, she couldn't care less if someone stole anything else she owned. She slowly made her way down to the bar, donning her normal leathers, not bothering to dress to impress Sarah or anyone else.

The pair spent a good hour forcing back Gragas' new concoction, finding themselves becoming drunk very fast. She decided the new drink was her new favourite, she would buy it next time she came to the bar for sure. She decided now that both of them were sufficiently drunk, she would harass Sarah about her behaviour earlier.

"So, you were very weird about the new champion when you brought her up, why?" She asked, giving the bounty hunter a mischievous look over the top of her glass as she took another gulp.

"Maybe I should tell you why another time, when we haven't had so much to drink." Sarah replied, trying her best to avoid answering Katarina's questions, not wanting to give an honest answer when she was like this.

As Katarina was about force the bounty hunter into giving her an answer, the bar suddenly went quiet. The pair looked up to where everyone else was staring, finding a ashen haired woman standing in the doorway of the bar, an awkward look on her face as she realised everyone was staring at her as she made her entrance. Katarina watched in silence as the woman found herself a seat at the bar only metres away from the assassin without so much as looking in her direction. Katarina briefly looked at Sarah, trying to see if the bounty hunter was seeing what she was seeing, finding a look of guilt on her face as she turned away from Katarina. She couldn't believe Riven was sitting so close to her after years of her believing that Riven was dead.

Katarina ran her eyes all over the Exile, trying to confirm for herself that this woman couldn't be Riven because Riven was dead. While some things about Riven had changed, it was definitely her. She still had the same messy white hair, crimson eyes and tanned skin like she did years ago even if she were far more scarred now, donning war paint on her cheek now. Her forearms were wrapped in bandages covering something that Katarina couldn't figure out, her clothes were the tattered remains of her Noxian commander's uniform that she had worn the day that she left almost seven years ago.

Riven finally turned to look at Katarina only when the assassin was quickly closing the distance between the two of them, white hot anger in her mind, in her skin. The shock of seeing Riven for the first time in years had been replaced by anger at knowing Riven had been alive for six years without one attempt made to contact her, to end her suffering and pain caused by thinking she was dead. The soldier stood up from her stool, locking eyes with Katarina, steeling her nerves as she waited to see what the assassin would do. The pair could feel every set of eyes in their room on them.

Katarina's hands wrapped tightly around Riven's neck, forcing her onto the bar behind her, forcing the air out of Riven's lungs. Riven started grasping at her hands, trying to pull them away from her neck. The assassin could hear Sarah get up from her chair, trying to break them apart. The bounty hunter's hands clasped around her forearms, pulling them back off of Riven only for her to reclaim them and hit the exile with her closed fists. She had never been one to punch people before, but she had never been betrayed like this before either.

She could hear Sarah calling out behind her for her to stop hitting Riven, for her to calm down and back away but she didn't stop until Riven's face was covered in her own blood, clenching her eyes closed in fear as she waited for another punch, but Katarina let Sarah pull her way from the exile who was now spitting up her own blood onto the bar.

Katarina was rightfully kicked out of the bar by Gragas', Sarah trying to take the assassin back to her quarters while she cooled off and got sobered up, taking the time to scold Katarina. Riven was taken to the infirmary to get treatment from the wounds inflicted by Katarina, Sarah tended to Katarina's possibly broken hand for the night as the assassin wasn't allowed to be anywhere near Riven until further notice.

"You're an idiot." Sarah said, her eyebrow raised as she removed the blood from her knuckles.

"I know."


	18. Part Two: Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

The day after Katarina attacked Riven in Gragas' bar, she was forced to sit in with some of the higher ups of the Institute, trying to figure out why she did what she did. Katarina refused to comment, not wanting to give away her feelings for Riven so publicly, not wanting to admit she lost her temper because of being heartbroken. She sat through her scolding from the council while fiddling with the cast on her right arm, she had broken some of the bones in her hand last night because it was some of the first punches she had ever thrown and she definitely didn't do it correctly even if it had its intended effect.

She was surprised to find out that there was no punishment given, normally when fights break out between champions, it was weeks or even months of suspension from the rift. It only made sense to her when someone on the council let it slip that Riven had asked them not to punish her. She made her way back to her champion quarters quietly, thinking about how Riven had decided to let her go without punishment for the damage she dealt. Did Riven still care for her after all these years? If she did, why didn't she tell Katarina that she was alive? Once back in her quarters she found Sarah sitting on the edge of her bed, fiddling with her fingers as she waited for Katarina to return.

"How long are you suspended for?" She asked Katarina as soon as she entered the room.

"No suspension." Katarina responded bluntly as she took a seat on the couch across from the bed, slinging her legs over one of the arms.

"No suspension? How?"

"One of the council members said that R- she- specifically asked for me to not be punished." She said, stopping herself before saying Riven's name out loud, it's been a long time since she's done that. She turned her head to look at Sarah directly, "You knew it was her. You knew that she was the new champion and you said nothing." Sarah looked away, hiding her face that was filled with guilt.

"Yes, I knew. I didn't know how to tell you."

"How did you know it was her? How did you know it was the same person?" Sarah took in a deep breath, going back to fiddling with her fingers. She was never this passive, never this nervous. Katarina had never seen Sarah as anything other than confident, she was hiding something else from her. "Answer me!" She snapped, forcing Sarah to look at her with her tone.

"I've met her before. I met her in Bilgewater one time."

"How long ago?" Sarah hesitated to answer, Katarina opening her mouth to shout at her again was enough to force her to respond.

"Two years ago."

"You've known for two years that Riven was alive and have chosen to say nothing to let me know?" Katarina's volume was rising as she got angrier, sitting up from the couch and standing in front of the bounty hunter. "Why?" She demanded. When Sarah chose not to respond again, she continued. "Were you jealous? That maybe I would stop seeing you if I knew she was alive?"

"I slept with her." Sarah murmured, just loud enough for Katarina to hear, causing the assassin to stop to process what she had just heard.

"Get out." Sarah had been the closest she had come to trusting someone since Riven, even sharing some of her feelings about Riven's death with the bounty hunter. Sarah kept sitting on the edge of her bed, her head in her hands. "I said, get the fuck out." She shouted again, causing Sarah to move from the bed and head towards the door. As soon as the bounty hunter paused to say something else, a glass was thrown at her head, shattering against the wall next to her.

Katarina sat in the dark, her curtains pulled closed, lying on her couch with a glass of wine in her still functioning hand. She was choosing to hide herself and her embarrassment from the world by hiding in her room and in the dark. She needed time to process the idea that her friend had slept with the woman she loved, not that she would have ever admitted that to Sarah, and then kept not just that a secret but that Riven was even alive to herself for years.

After a few drinks she forced herself up off the couch, getting enough courage together in order to track Riven down, taking the risk that the exile may not want to see her at all. She knew Riven would be staying in the wing of the Institute reserved for champions who didn't belong to a nation. She wandered aimlessly through the halls, trying to figure out which room belonged to Riven. After a while she found herself standing in front of the only room in the halls that had no markings or symbols of any kind, the lack of personalisation that was very clearly Riven. She took in a shaky breath before knocking with her good hand on the door, waiting patiently for the exile to respond. Long ago were the days that she could just climb into Riven's room through the window unannounced, especially after the beating she gave her the day prior. Eventually the door opened, Riven peering out at her from behind the door, trying to hide the damage done to her face.

"What do you need?" Riven asked, trying to keep herself distant from Katarina in the way she spoke.

"I need to talk to you." Riven said nothing for a few moments, considering her options before opening the door completely and letting the assassin into her quarters. In the light of her bedroom, Katarina could see the full extent of the damage she had dealt in the bar, bruising covering the bridge of her nose and her eyes, her lower lip split. A few bandages sat on Riven's nose, she figured she must have broken it as she broke her own hand. Riven looked away slightly as if trying to hide her face.

"What do you need to talk about?"

"You're alive." Katarina commented, running her eyes up and down Riven as if she didn't believe that the exile was standing in front of her. Riven only gave her a confused look in response.

"You're not that good at throwing punches, Kat." Katarina inhaled sharply at the sound of the informal nickname that Riven had only begun being comfortable using towards the end of their relationship, shortly before she disappeared.

"That's not what I meant. You were gone for so long, I thought you were dead." Riven's face twisted, as if Katarina thinking that she was dead was new information to her.

"You thought I was dead?"

"Yes, I was sent a report suggesting that you had died in battle shortly before Snowdown. You never reappeared so I thought it was true. You never came to see me to let me know that you were alive."

"I thought you knew." She responded quickly, obviously distressed by the fact that Katarina had believed she was dead all these years. "I came back to Noxus in secret a few times, hoping to maybe sneak in to see you but I found you with… others. I figured you had moved on knowing that I had chosen to leave Noxus behind."

"You came back?" Katarina asked, her voice shaking more than she would have liked, the alcohol making her more prone to being honest about her feelings than normal.

"I did." Riven's eyes left Katarina's, looking down to the hand that was in a cast. "You broke your hand." She commented, obviously wanting to reach forward and hold it but holding herself back from doing so. "I thought you had moved on, I thought you didn't want me anymore because I was choosing to leave Noxus."

"I thought you were dead, Riven, of course I slept with other people." She felt herself snap in response. "Why did you leave?" She asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." Riven shut her down, refusing to speak about why she left Noxus.

"Fine, I'll leave." Katarina said, forcing herself to move away from the exile and back to the door. Katarina gave her one last look over her shoulder as she turned the door handle, seeing the look on the exile's face that suggested that maybe she didn't want Katarina to leave but didn't want to ask her to stay. She closed the door behind herself.


	19. Part Two: Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Riven spent the night awake as she almost always did, sitting on the floor of her room, her back up against the bed. She had trouble sleeping even before the mess of finding out Katarina had thought she was dead for years, having to choose between staying up most nights and risking the chance of having nightmares again. The nightmares began before Riven even left Noxus, not being able to cope with the guilt of murdering her friend, now she had those nightmares still but regularly had new ones, ones about almost dying in Ionia, watching all her men die from chemical burns. She spent most of the night sitting on the floor, deep in her thoughts about how she would deal with the problem of Katarina when not long after day broke there was a knock on her door. Riven forced herself up off the floor, opening the door to find Quinn standing outside her door, she pushed the door closed a little more, hiding her face behind it in hopes to prevent the Demacian from seeing the injuries to her face.

"What do you need?" She murmured from behind the door, trying to be as uninviting as possible to prevent her from wanting to come inside.

"Let me inside." Riven stared at her for a moment before reluctantly stepping aside, letting Quinn into her quarters. Quinn had obviously left Valor behind this time, entering her room alone. Riven had met the scout a while ago while travelling through the rural back roads of Demacia. Quinn had been sent to look into the descriptions of a Noxian wandering around Demacia and found Riven hiding in the barn of some farm. Quinn chose to follow Riven, taking in information even after she had determined that the Noxian wasn't a threat to Demacia. The Demacian removed her helmet, placing it on the table by the door and revealing her light brown hair. In the light of Riven's quarters, Quinn quietly studied the Noxian's face, taking in the extent of Riven's injuries.

"I just got back from a mission in Demacia, I came back to find out Katarina beat the hell out of you in a bar fight." The Demacian crossed her arms over her chest. "You only got here a few days ago, how did you let this happen? More importantly, how did Katarina beat you in a fight? She couldn't hit someone if she tried." Riven averted her eyes from Quinn, giving away without saying anything that she had let Katarina do what she wanted to vent her frustration. "And you let her get away without being punished for it?"

"There's no point in punishing her for it, it won't happen again." Quinn let out an exasperated sigh in response before cupping Riven's face with both her hands, tilting her head back to give her a better look at her injuries.

"She landed a few good ones, clearly. She broke your nose." The Demacian said, an eyebrow quirked, looking unimpressed with Riven's decisions. Riven let Quinn's hands linger on her face, not immediately pulling herself away from her touch.

"I'll recover soon enough."

"That's not the point." Quinn said followed by another exasperated sigh, letting her concern for Riven show through. Riven had suspected for a long time now that the Demacian had feelings for her of some nature, it being the only reason why she trailed her for so long and protected her from the Demacian government then continuing to see her all these years later. Riven didn't really know how she felt about Quinn, she certainly enjoyed her company and she was far from rejecting the Demacian and her advances but that was before she knew Katarina had no clue all along that she was alive, making this far more complicated. Quinn finally pulled her hands away from Riven's face, sensing the conflict the exile was feeling. "Come train with me. I think you need the stress relief." Riven nodded as her response, grabbing her broken runesword blade and following the Demacian down to the training halls.

Riven quickly picked up on the game that Quinn was playing at a few hours into the sparring and drills they ran, she was purposefully trying to exhaust Riven to a point that when she returned to her room tonight she would get the rest she desperately needed. Quinn knew about Riven's trouble with sleep and how elusive it was to her from years of careful research, sometimes Riven felt the scout knew far more about her than she ever lead on.

When Quinn returned Riven to her champion quarters shortly after nightfall that evening, she let the Demacian linger in her room for a while, offering her a drink with what little things she had filled her room with. The Institute had offered to furnish her room with more furniture and offered her some money in order to decorate it or buy more clothing but Riven chose to turn it down, continuing to live in simplicity. The pair were unaware of Katarina sitting on the balcony attached to Riven's quarters as they spoke, Riven taking the opportunity to ask the Demacian some questions about living in the Institute. They were unaware as Katarina watched them talk, Quinn taking the opportunity to make a few more flirtatious touches, a hand on Riven's arm, a hand cupping Riven's cheek, not realising the anger that stirred within the assassin sitting outside.

Eventually Quinn took her leave, letting Riven have the chance to finally get some rest, her body exhausted from being awake for multiple days in a row and from the training that Quinn forced her through today. Once Riven finally fell asleep, Katarina forced the window open, climbing through it and standing beside the bed as Riven slept, looking down on the exile. Katarina was surprised by Riven's lack of response to her entrance, she had always known the exile to be an incredibly light sleeper, she figured she must be exhausted. Katarina stood there for a few moments, considering what her next move would be when Riven began to toss and turn in her sleep, the assassin recognised this from years ago when Riven would sleep over at the Du Couteau estate and have nightmares throughout the night.

The assassin continued to watch quietly as Riven's nightmare just went from light tossing and turning to fighting in her sleep, sweating profusely but still not waking up. Even after Commander Finbar's death her nightmares weren't to this level, she must have experienced something even worse than that in the years that she was missing. After a few moments of hesitation, Katarina pushed down her fear and found herself climbing into bed with the exile, wrapping her arms around Riven tightly as she had done many years ago in order to ease the nightmares. She had found the only way to stop Riven's frantic movements and calm her down while she slept was to hold her as tightly as she could without restricting her breathing. She knew she was taking a risk by entering Riven's quarters and bed without permission, knowing that Riven could wake up at any moment and change her mind about waiving her punishment but Katarina was prepared to take that risk as furious as she was with Riven for disappearing and as jealous as she was feeling herself become at the idea of her being with that Demacian scout, she couldn't resist Riven in this moment. She noticed with Riven pressed against her, as her struggling lessened, how thin the exile felt. It felt as if Riven hadn't eaten properly in months, possibly even longer, it made her wonder exactly where she had been and what she had done over the years, hoping that maybe one day the exile would finally confide in her about what had happened. While so deep in thought, Katarina didn't notice herself fall asleep still in Riven's bed.


	20. Part Two: Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Riven woke the next day to find the Sinister Blade clinging tightly to her body under the sheets, at first she doesn't think anything of it, still somewhat used to waking up beside the assassin even if it were years ago since it last happened, but once she came out of her half asleep daze she sat up, forcing some distance between the two of them. Katarina woke up at the sudden movement, making eye contact with Riven with a look of shock and embarrassment running across her face as she realised she had let herself fall asleep in Riven's bed only to be caught the following morning. Katarina forced herself up into a sitting position herself, her eyes still locked on Riven, taking in the sight of the chemical burn on her cheek that was normally covered by war paint. She made a mental note to ask Riven about that scar later.

"What are you doing here?" Riven asked, anger flaring in her tone. Katarina struggled to find a suitable answer for the exile, she had waited outside on her balcony last night to find the opportunity to talk to Riven only to find her asleep when she made the stupid decision to climb into bed with her as if things had never changed between them.

"You have nightmares still." Katarina commented instead of acknowledging Riven's question. "That scar on your face, what happened?" She continued.

"As if you don't know already." Riven grunted at her, rebuffing her attempts to find out more information. Riven couldn't believe that Katarina, the daughter of General Du Couteau didn't have full access to the information about what happened to her and her company in Ionia, she could possibly believe that she didn't know Riven was alive but also knowing nothing about what Singed's melters were used for? She couldn't buy that. Katarina's emotions also flared in response to Riven's tone, becoming angry herself.

"You have that much trouble believing what I say?" She asked with an accusatory tone.

"I don't have much ability to trust other Noxians these days."

"So you have the ability to trust Demacian women instead?" Katarina replied, venom dripping in her tone, she intended for the comment to hurt Riven but all it really did was give away her own jealousy, her own feelings for Riven. The exile may not be well acquainted with her own emotions but she was certainly observant enough to notice Katarina's.

"I think it's time for you to leave. You're lucky that I won't be reporting your stalking." Riven sat in silence on the bed as she watched Katarina leave her quarters through the front door. Riven felt conflicted, part of her was still feeling the anger she's felt for a long time over Katarina but part of her also felt a need to pull the assassin close and reassure her that she still felt strong feelings for her, that she still loved her. She couldn't bring herself to bare everything to Katarina, not when she could risk losing the assassin again once she knew the details of her deserting Noxus. She found herself thinking back to the first time she found herself sneaking back into Noxus, trying to find Katarina.

 _Riven managed to pass through the borders of Noxus undetected, an advantage of being a commander in the military meant that she knew the patrols and weak points of Noxian border security. She had been hiding in Ionia for the past few months since the betrayal by Zaun as she recovered, mostly sleeping in forests and caves while she tried to recover from the chemical burns on her back, arms and face. It had taken much longer than it should have for her to be back to as close to full strength as possible because of the conditions she lived in. She didn't have easy access to food, hunting being difficult in her injured state and living in the damp and dirty conditions of the rural areas of Ionia without any money to replace supplies to cover her wounds. Her recovery had been set back multiple times by avoidable infection but that didn't matter, she had finally gotten through her burns, trying to make her way back into Noxus._

 _She wasn't returning in hopes to rejoin the military, she had decided for good that she had no interest in that any longer. Riven couldn't be part of such a brutal, disgusting system any longer, not when Swain was in charge. She had made her way back to Noxus for one person alone, she was hoping to find a way to get herself in contact with Katarina, her current plan being one of sneaking into the Du Couteau estate and scaling the side of the building in a very Katarina like fashion to enter through a window. Riven didn't know how the assassin would react to her presence, she had no clue as to what Katarina had been told about Ionia. Maybe the assassin would be glad to see her, maybe she wouldn't. It was a risk that she was willing to take in hopes that maybe they could briefly be reunited. Riven wasn't sure what kind of outcome she was expecting. It's not like she could hide in Katarina's private room forever and it's not like she could ask the assassin to leave everything behind and desert Noxus as well._

 _Within two days of entering at the northern border of Noxus, Riven found herself nearby the Du Couteau estate. She was using some of the seedier Inns in the central part of Noxus to hide herself away while she waited for nightfall. There was no way that she would be able to sneak herself past the security at the estate during the day, not without Katarina's help. Once nightfall came, Riven made her move, managing to scale the back fence and make her way up to the side of the mansion that Katarina's private room belonged in. Once the security guard rotation passed by she began scaling the side of the mansion, digging her fingers in between the bricks. She slowly pulled herself up and over the railing of the balcony, dropping down onto her knees in near exhaustion. She had become much weaker since her near miss with death, much thinner and frailer._

 _Riven peered in through the glass of the windows and door that connected Katarina's room to the balcony, trying to look for whether this was the right opportunity to enter, wanting to find the assassin alone to limit the exposure. What Riven found instead of Katarina being alone was the redhead assassin on top of some half naked blonde woman, no one that Riven recognised, most likely some woman that Katarina had found in a bar in central Noxus like she had done countless times before she asked Riven to commit to her over a year ago. Riven's heart sank, Katarina must have heard of her desertion and had chosen to move on, not wanting to keep herself committed to a weak soldier who couldn't even keep her promises._

Discovering that Katarina was sleeping or seeing other women had pushed Riven to move on in her own ways even if she never could bring herself to commit to anyone else. Riven was far from innocent when it came to sleeping with others, taking the opportunity to relieve her stress while travelling throughout Valoran. Part of Riven wanted to tell the assassin everything about what had happened but the logical side of her pushed that down, knowing that there was too much risk at this stage to open up to Katarina again. Even if Katarina turned out to be genuine in her interest, wanting to be with Riven again now that she knows the exile was alive; it would put Katarina at risk to know everything that happened. Only Quinn knew the extent of what happened in Ionia and it was from relentless questioning over the span of months mixed in with her own spying and research. Even just the type of relationship that she had with the Demacian made things with Katarina more difficult, this was the first time in a long time that Riven didn't really know what to do next.


	21. Part Two: Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Riven was forcefully dragged out her room by the Demacian scout again, this time Quinn was making her join her in the dining hall today for some lunch. Quinn had decided that Riven was spending far too much time in her room hiding from the other champions, trying to hide her injuries and trying to hide from Katarina. When the pair entered the dining hall, Quinn led her past the tables where the Demacians usually sat at together and took a seat at an empty table in the corner, trying to avoid bringing too much attention to them. Riven knew that Quinn didn't get on with the other Demacian champions particularly well, most of them ignoring her because of her lack of nobility and her lack of class due to her being rural born, having a thick rural accent when speaking in her native tongue. Quinn would avoid spending time with any one of them, choosing to always work alone or with Valor instead, the only exception to this is when Jarvan would request it of her.

Despite their best attempts to remain somewhat hidden, trying to avoid bringing attention to themselves, they were still a Noxian and a Demacian voluntarily sitting together and talking, something that never happened willingly. Even if Riven wasn't really a Noxian champion, many of Quinn's fellow Demacians would take it as interacting with the enemy, while the scout had her back to the table of Demacians, Riven could see the looks of disgust that flared throughout the group. Quinn's being an outsider was part of what Riven thought made the scout want to follow her, to get to know as much as possible about her, seeing Riven as an exile must have made Quinn think they were similar even if the circumstances were different. Many also eyed the pair in confusion because for a lot of them, it was the first time seeing Quinn speak to someone other than her bird willingly, she was a socially awkward woman for sure, keeping largely to herself and seeing Quinn speak to Riven who was a Noxian over a shared meal in a public place was enough to turn heads.

Quinn was in the middle of asking Riven about upcoming practice matches, wanting to find out if she could find a way to get herself involved in them when Cassiopeia made her way towards the table, aiming to head past them. Riven's eyes flickered to the woman who was now half serpent before darting away, sticking intently to her food, she was partly disgusted by Cassiopeia's new form, even if it weren't the woman's fault that she was this way. She had heard the stories while travelling about one of the Du Couteau sisters being turned into a half snake via a Shuriman curse. Cassiopeia being the painfully observant person that she is of course noticed Riven's reaction to her new form, noticing the way she had her eyes locked on her lunch in shame, choosing to stop in front of the pair in order to force Riven to look up at her.

After a few moments of awkward silence between the three of them, Riven forced herself to look up from her lunch at Cassiopeia, locking eyes with the half-serpent. Cassiopeia chose to continue to stare Riven down for a few more moments until her sister, Katarina made an appearance behind her, obviously having seen the beginning of a confrontation from the other side of the dining hall.

"Do you no longer find me attractive, Riven?" Riven swallowed hard, not wanting to answer that question honestly. "I seem to remember all those years ago you felt very differently about how I look, do I disgust you, Riven?" When Riven averted her eyes from the brunette, she missed Cassiopeia grabbing one of the blades secured to Katarina's belt and bringing it down on the hand she had resting on the table, slamming the blade through the back of Riven's hand, holding it to the table.

At first the shock of the injury prevented Riven from feeling any pain from it, but once it wore off, she began to grab at the knife sticking out of the back of her hand in agony. From the corner of her eye she could see Katarina trying to pull Cassiopeia back from the pair of them, wanting to prevent yet another Du Couteau confrontation with Riven even if it was far too late for that. Quinn had gotten up from her seat immediately after the knife connected with her and drew out her cross bow, landing a shot in the half-serpents shoulder, trying to prevent any further attacks on Riven, risking possibly getting in trouble herself for unsanctioned fighting even if she were defending the exile.

Quinn's crossbolt in Cassiopeia's shoulder managed to keep the woman from attacking her again before the both of them were taken to the infirmary to have their injuries looked at, though Cassiopeia was escorted by guards in order to keep her in custody until a hearing could take place. Quinn refused to leave Riven's side while she received treatment for the injury, insisting that she needed to be there in case one of the Du Couteau sisters made another attempt on her life, this caused Riven to roll her eyes slightly, a knife to the hand was far from an attempt on her life.

Once Riven's injury hand been attended to, the wound being closed up, disinfected and covered in bandages, two of the members of the council at the Institute came to ask her questions in regards to the incident that occurred downstairs. Apparently they had already received witness statements, namely one from some woman called Caitlyn who came forward to stand by the fact that Cassiopeia had attacked Riven without provocation. They wanted Riven to confirm that this was the case, wanting to suspend Cassiopeia from the League for at least two months as her punishment, sending her back home to Noxus in the meantime. Riven gave them an honest answer about what happened, hesitating when asked what she thought the punishment would be. She wasn't as willing to forgive the woman for her violent attack as she was with Katarina, a woman who she has intense feelings for, Riven asked for a day to consider what she wanted before they went ahead.

When Katarina entered the room she was in in the infirmary, Quinn stood up from her seat, crossbow at the ready in case Katarina was planning to hurt the exile again. Katarina raised her arms above her shoulders in a defensive position, showing she was no threat and possessed no weapons. Riven took the opportunity to stare Katarina down as she waited for the assassin to speak, waited for her to ask what she had obviously come to ask.

"I would like to apologise on behalf of my sister," The assassin choked out, Katarina never apologised, she certainly never did it for anyone else, this caused Riven to stare at assassin with a questioning look on her face as she continued, "I would like to ask you to forgive Cassiopeia's attack on you, she can't afford to be sent back to Noxus right now." Quinn began to answer for Riven, her own anger flaring at the assassin.

"She should have thought of that when she attacked someone without provocation." Quinn snapped at Katarina, her crossbow still tightly wielded in hand. Riven raised her hand, signalling for Quinn to stop talking, to leave it between her and Katarina.

"I'll think about it." Was the only response Riven gave Katarina, not wanting to make any promises to keep Cassiopeia out of trouble. Katarina ran her eyes over Riven for a moment, wanting to take the opportunity to talk to the exile more about them, about their relationship but choosing to hold back when the Demacian scout who clearly had some kind of romantic interest in Riven was standing close by. Katarina gave a quick nod to Riven before turning and leaving.


	22. Part Two: Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Quinn took Riven back to her room as soon as she was cleared by the doctors in the infirmary to go, her injuries taken care of. The scout hovered close without actually trying to help guide her back to her room, obviously concerned for her wellbeing, possibly even feeling a little guilty for forcing Riven to leave her quarters today. Riven didn't blame Quinn for what happened, the scout had no idea about what could have possibly happened if she were to run into Cassiopeia, frankly Riven had no idea that the woman had it in her to actually attack her with a knife.

Riven took a seat at the table the league had provided her with and waited as Quinn walked around her quarters, helping herself to what she needed, bringing Riven back a glass of water in order to take what medication she had been given to help with the pain. Normally Riven wouldn't bother, she would just ignore the pain, it was something she was used to and didn't particularly like the way that pain killers dulled her senses but she figured with the way that Quinn was looming over her now; it wouldn't be her choice to make. She forced back the pills the scout handed her and downed it with the glass of water before looking up at Quinn as if asking for approval.

"You don't have to stay here to take care of me if you have better things to do with your time." Riven offered to Quinn, trying to give the scout an out of the situation if she felt obliged to look after her.

"Can I stay though?" Quinn asked her, biting at her lower lip slightly, a habit Riven had realised long ago suggested the scout was feeling nervous in some way even if Riven didn't know why in that moment.

"If you would like." There was a brief silence between the pair before Riven spoke again, "You took a big risk trying to defend me like that, attacking Cassiopeia. They could have punished you as well." Quinn diverted her eyes away from the exile before responding.

"It was worth the risk." Riven raised her eyebrow slightly, she wondered if Quinn was tacitly admitting what she thought she was. The exile had always believed that the scout may have harboured stronger feelings for Riven than friendship but had been too afraid to admit them though Riven never acted on this belief, not wanting to force Quinn into anything she may be afraid of. The nervous lip biting returned to Quinn's face after Riven hadn't spoken for a while before she stood up, taking the glass that sat on the table back to the kitchen.

When Quinn was out of sight, Riven stood up from the table, walking towards the small kitchen attached to her quarters; once the scout reemerged she backed Quinn up against the wall, a predatory glint in her eyes. It had been a while since she last slept with someone, particularly someone new, and with all the craziness of the past few days, Riven was more than ready to let out some of her frustration on a new and willing target. Quinn quietly let Riven back her up against the wall, a light blush forming across her cheeks as she began to realise what Riven's intentions were, doing nothing to stop the Noxian from continuing, silently giving her approval. Riven's good hand found the scouts hip, pressing Quinn's lower back into the wall as she leaned her, her mouth hovering over Quinn's pulse.

"Is this what you want?" Riven asked Quinn in a husky tone, trying to display her own interest in the scout.

"I've never…" Quinn cut herself off, not wanting to really admit to that out loud, hoping that Riven would understand what she was trying to tell her. It wasn't that Quinn hadn't wanted to in the past, she had, she had just never received the opportunity to finally take care of that. She had been trying for months however to get Riven's attention, hoping that maybe the exile would take her virginity once and for all.

"You aren't going to ask me to be gentle, are you?" Riven asked her, her mouth still hovering over the skin of her neck causing the scout to shudder. Riven was far too frustrated in this moment to take the time to be gentle.

"Definitely not." Riven responded to her consent by pressing her body against Quinn's, her mouth hot on the skin of her neck, her good hand finding its way up and under the Demacian military wear that Quinn wore. Riven pulled her hand out from under Quinn's shirt, moving up to the helmet still on the scouts head, removing it and tossing it aside, letting her light brown hair fall onto her shoulders. Riven cupped Quinn's face, pulling her into a searing kiss as she pushed her thigh between the scout's legs earning a low moan of approval from the Demacian.

Riven's hands drifted south, undoing the buttons of Quinn's Demacian military uniform and pushing it off her shoulders, leaving Quinn in her bra which Riven made quick work of. Riven hooked her uninjured hand under Quinn's thigh, pulling the scout's knee up to her hip as she began to kiss down her collarbone, finding her way to her breasts. Riven was gentle with Quinn's nipples for a brief moment before quickly escalating to harsh bites that pulled wonderful noises out from the Demacian who was already beginning to shudder and tremble under the exile's touch causing Riven to smirk to herself, it was surprisingly wonderful to have a sensitive virgin under her control.

Once Riven was satisfied with her work of building Quinn up, she pulled the Demacian away from the wall, forcing her to bend over the table, finally finding a use for the stupid furniture she was given. Riven held Quinn's upper half against the table using the forearm of her injured hand to apply pressure, her good hand roaming to the front of Quinn's pants, violently undoing the belt and buttons that stood in her way. Once Quinn's pants were resting around her ankles, Riven began to work her way at Quinn's clit harshly, earning some loud and shaky moans from the Demacian. Riven was finding that she was enjoying this even more than she thought, loving the way that Quinn reacted to her touch, so thoroughly turned on by Riven and her aggressive touch, aroused without shame. Quinn began to struggle beneath Riven's weight on her back, not being able to handle the pleasure Riven was harshly dealing out. As Riven felt Quinn getting close to her climax, she eased off on the pressure, forcing the Demacian to beg her for her release.

"Please." Quinn let out in a shaky, desperate voice, gyrating her hips into Riven's hand in order to try force more friction. Riven let out a husky chuckle before finally giving the Demacian what she was asking for, returning to her original pace, only stopping when Quinn was spent, becoming somewhat limp against the table.

Riven helped Quinn over to her bed, removing her shoes and pants from around her ankles, letting the Demacian recover for a few minutes for expecting the favour to be returned. Quinn was far better at eating her out than she had expected for someone with no experience, bringing Riven to a swift climax with just the use of her mouth, eager to please the Noxian after having taken her virginity in such an intense manner. The exile pulled the sheets over their naked bodies, pulling Quinn in close and letting her rest her head against Riven's chest before falling asleep for a brief nap, exhausted from their entanglement.


	23. Part Two: Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

 _Riven found herself standing over Fin's body, his blood pooling underneath him, his death still fresh. She had had this nightmare countless times before, no matter what she did she didn't seem to be able to control it, to end it. She just had to endure, standing over Fin whose eyes still were open, staring blankly out at her as if asking her why she did what she did. She was trapped, unable to move, unable to speak. It was suffocating every time she had this nightmare, her own mind torturing her with her guilt, reminding her over and over that she's not to be trusted, that she murdered her own best friend in cold blood._

 _The nightmare changes, the dining hall of the Noxian military barracks changing into an open field, she found herself back in Ionia. The open field she stood in wasn't empty; it was filled with the dying men of Fury Company as they slowly succumbed to the chemical burns, crying out to Riven, their Commander for relief of their pain. She felt a hand wrap around her ankle, it belonging to a boy she knew from her company, he had only joined the military a few weeks prior to being shipped off to Ionia, he was barely sixteen when he left, dying a needless death to Singed's poison._

 _Riven felt endless guilt for being the only survivor of her company, she believed that she should have died with them back in Ionia. She had been at the back of the group, at the back of the battle, giving her a chance to notice the melters long before they hit the ground, giving her the opportunity to run away like a coward when her men died bravely in front of her. Every day since then she had been disgusted with herself for her weakness and cowardice._

Riven woke up, she was struggling against the arms that were around her, trying to hold her still to calm her. When she had her nightmares, she would wake up alone, giving herself the time to find her bearings and calm herself down. Waking up with Quinn in her bed left Riven confused and disorientated, struggling violently against the Demacian before keeling over the edge of the bed, throwing up directly onto the ground. She forced herself to turn around, turning to what at first looked like Quinn before all she could see was Fin staring back at her.

"Riven, what's wrong?" Quinn asked her, concerned, wondering if she had done something wrong to upset the Noxian. Riven in a panic found herself straddling Quinn, her hands around the Demacian's neck, unable to tell who it is that's in her bed. It was only when Quinn began to desperately claw at the hands around her throat that Riven was brought back to reality, releasing the scout who took in a massive exhale, coughing as she tried desperately to catch her breath again.

Riven backed away to the edge of the bed, giving Quinn space, afraid to be anywhere near her after what she had done. Quinn knew that Riven had nightmares, had trouble sleeping and suffered a lot of guilt after what had happened in Ionia but she had never seen it up close when things fell apart. Riven had never had this happen to her before, her nightmares and her reaction to them had never extended beyond sleep before. She expected Quinn to get up and leave, never wanting to speak to her again.

Instead, Quinn continued to lie there in bed, still naked from having sex only hours prior. She had a terrified look on her face but she wasn't leaving either. The scout's eyes were locked on Riven, watching for even the slightest amount of movement while she evaluated her own safety. Riven didn't move, not wanting to startle Quinn after almost choking her to unconsciousness.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asked her, Riven had a look of confusion on her face. Quinn who had just been attacked by Riven was asking her if _she_ was okay. Riven felt herself crumble at the sign of concern from the scout, tears spilling over, the guilt had finally built up to a point she couldn't cope with alone anymore. Riven felt Quinn put her arms around her, pulling her in for a tight embrace. How could Quinn worry about her in this moment? How could Quinn worry about her when she was guilty of genocide and cold blooded murder?

Riven felt herself crying against Quinn's shoulder uncontrollably, having started now she couldn't bring herself to stop. Quinn said nothing as she waited for Riven to calm down. As Quinn comforted her, another sense of guilt crept up on her, guilt of her own emotional conflict of still wanting to be with Katarina, still loving the Sinister Blade when Quinn cared for her so unconditionally.

"What happened?" Quinn asked after about fifteen minutes of silence between them, after Riven had finally calmed down.

"Nightmares. I've never reacted like that before. I don't know what happened. I couldn't see you, it didn't look like you, I panicked." Quinn carded her fingers through Riven's hair. "I'm sorry." Riven said, hoping somehow to make up for what she had done, even though she didn't think an apology would begin to cover it.

"It's okay, you didn't mean to do it." Riven lifted her head from Quinn's chest, examining the slowly forming bruises where her hands had gripped the scout's throat. This day was just another to add to her list of days and actions she would regret, always carrying guilt for.


	24. Part Two: Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

After Riven's violent nightmare she had to return to the infirmary to get the wound closed up again, having torn out her stitches in the struggle. She originally wasn't going to bother but Quinn made her go, making her best attempt to cover up the bruising on her neck by wearing her shirt buttoned up to the top and choosing to leave her hair down. Quinn didn't speak to many people at the league but she didn't feel like leaving herself exposed to prying by walking around the bruising showing. She knew Riven well enough to know she was going to hold what had happened against herself for as long as she possibly can no matter how many times Quinn tells her she forgives Riven. Everything up until that moment where Riven woke up had been beyond what she had imagined while trying to build up the courage to tell Riven how she felt for months prior. She still hadn't really told the exile but she figured Riven must know already what she feels.

When Riven decided to hide herself away in her quarters today, Quinn didn't make any attempt to stop her, letting the exile take the time she needed to be alone and process what had happened. Quinn knew better than to try interrupting that by hovering, deciding to take the night to train and then rest.

Riven sat in the dark for multiple hours, sitting on the floor by the end of her bed, her knees pulled up to her chest. She had sat like this in the dark many times before while she thought deeply about herself and how much she hated living at times even if she were too cowardly to do the right thing and take her own life. All she did was inflict pain on others, killing Fin, letting her men die as she fled, hurting Quinn, leaving Katarina in the dark for years because of her own fear. She couldn't do anything without hurting those around her and she hated herself for it.

Her brooding was interrupted by a shadow of someone waiting outside her door becoming visible through the crack underneath it. Whoever stood outside her room was hesitating, building up the courage to knock, possibly seeing that there weren't any lights on inside and thinking that maybe Riven wasn't home.

"Let yourself in." She called out, she could see the shadow jerk slightly, the owner of it surprised that Riven knew they were there. The door opened and Katarina entered, Riven stared at her silently, waiting to hear what the assassin wanted from her this time. Katarina stood in the dark with her for a few moments, they were waiting each other out, trying to force the other to speak first. Katarina broke first.

"A week before Snowdown, I received a report saying your entire company had died in a battle in Ionia with you being missing in action, your body not found but the assumption was that you had maybe crawled away and died alone in the snow. Or at least that was what I was informed of. The report in reflection was incredibly vague, not saying anything about how Fury Company died in such large numbers." Katarina was being honest, vulnerable with Riven, trying to earn the exiles trust by giving Riven hers first. Riven watched her silently, signaling without saying anything for her to continue talking. "I had a few scouts sent out to see if they could retrieve your body, I had to organise my own as the Generals, including my father, refused to send anyone out to find you. I should have realised how suspicious that was, their refusal to even bother bringing back a commander's body for burial. I was… lost during that time. I didn't think clearly and I never second guessed whether you had actually died or how you died. The first time I knew you were alive was when you walked into the bar a few days ago." Riven continued to be quiet for a few more moments, processing what Katarina had told her, the assassin wasn't currently giving her any reasons to doubt her recalling of the events.

"A few months after what happened… happened, I returned to Noxus to try and talk to you. I even made it as far as your balcony but once I looked inside, I found you in bed with some blonde woman, I figured you knew that I had chosen to desert and had decided you didn't need to wait for a coward like me, choosing to move on." Katarina stiffened slightly at the mention of finding her in bed with some woman she had picked up at a bar many years ago.

"I have something for you." Katarina said before going back into the hallway outside Riven's room before reentering, the chest she left behind in Noxus in her hands. She placed it on the table in the middle of the room, the table that she had fucked Quinn on only hours prior, feeling a pang of guilt at that memory. "I've had this since they declared you dead, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. You can have it now though." Katarina ran her hand over the box with a glint of affection. Riven couldn't believe the honesty and vulnerability that Katarina was showing her in this moment, in the almost one year they had spent together in Noxus before she disappeared, Katarina had never even admitted to having real feelings for her, this was something else.

Riven said nothing as Katarina took her leave, continuing to sit in the dark as she pondered what had happened that day. She could feel old feelings rising with in her, wanting to ask the assassin to stay, wanting Katarina to touch her, kiss her though she didn't have the courage to ask for that, not yet.


	25. Part Two: Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Riven found herself in Gragas' bar for the first time since her first night at the League, a glass of bourbon in her hand. It was her seventh drink of the night, she placed her arms up on the bar, resting her head on them. She was drunk enough that Gragas was already considering cutting her off. Riven had a higher tolerance for alcohol than this but she had made the dumb decision to mix her pain medication for her injured hand with the bourbon.

Riven didn't even notice the hand on her shoulder until she was being shaken by the person it belonged to. It was Katarina, Riven hadn't realised that she had well overstayed in the bar past closing time, Katarina having most likely heard about how drunk she was and deciding to come get her. Only the tiniest bit of Riven was disappointed that it wasn't Quinn that had come to rescue her from her own bad decisions, instead it was the woman who was the cause of it. Katarina grabbed Riven's arm and pulled it around her shoulder, trying to help Riven up from the bar stool and help bring her back to her room. Riven stumbled along through the halls of the Institute as the assassin guided her.

"You reek." Katarina sneered at her, digging through Riven's pockets in order to find the keys to her quarters, unlocking the door in front of them. Once the assassin had gotten Riven over to her bed, she let Riven go, letting her fall onto the mattress. Katarina began untying the laces of the exiles leather boots when Riven grabbed her wrist, pulling her forward onto the mattress, forward onto her. Riven brought her good hand up and buried it into Katarina's hair, pulling the assassin into for a brutal, sloppy kiss. The exile hooked her injured hand around Katarina's lower back, holding the assassin against her before rolling over, leaving Riven on top of her, her hands wondering up underneath her leather jacket. After giving into a few kisses, Katarina created the slightest space between them, giving herself room to talk.

"You're drunk." She said. Riven quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Yes." Riven slurred back at her before trying to go back in for another kiss, Katarina's hand blocking the way.

"Not while you're drunk and angry." Riven let out an unsatisfied grunt.

"I love you." Riven offered to the assassin who only hesitated in response. Riven rolled over, letting the assassin go free. "Still can't say it even after all this time?" The assassin remained quiet. "Whatever, get the fuck out."

"And you can only speak to me while you're drunk, get over yourself." Katarina snapped, getting up off the bed. Riven diverted her eyes, conceding the point to the assassin. Riven said nothing more as the assassin left in anger, eventually falling asleep on top of the covers of her bed, her right boot still on her foot.

Riven woke up the next day with a blinding hangover, though the sleep she had was the best she had had in years, sleeping for almost 18 hours with the assistance of way too much to drink. There was a loud knock at her door causing her to groan with how it hurt her head. Quinn eventually let herself into Riven's quarters after no response from the exile.

"I heard you got incredibly drunk last night. You know they told you no drinking while taking those pain pills." Riven let out a low grunt as her response, unable to lift her head up off the pillow. "You still have your shoe on." Quinn commented as she got closer to the bed, removing the boot off of Riven's foot. Quinn stood there hesitating, wanting to climb onto the bed with Riven but unsure of what was and wasn't okay after their entanglement the other day. Riven sensed her hesitation and gestured with her hand for her to come join her, moving over slightly to let Quinn join her on the bed. Even when Quinn laid next to her, Riven could feel her hesitation to touch her, lying close without actually making the attempt.

"You've had your head between my legs; you can touch me if you want." Riven said without opening her eyes. Quinn took the opportunity to wrap her arms around Riven, sliding one underneath her body and the other over her shoulder, pulling her in tightly. After a few minutes of silence between the pair, Quinn spoke.

"How did you manage to get yourself back to your room last night? From the sound of it, you could barely stand up on your own." Riven hesitated before answering, knowing Quinn wouldn't like what she heard if she were honest, but she felt guilt enough for sleeping with Quinn when she still harboured feelings for Katarina, she wasn't going to start lying to her as well.

"Katarina found me at the bar last night, she helped me home." Quinn stiffened slightly at the mention of the Sinister Blade but said nothing about what she thought, letting the conversation topic pass instead of admitting to her own jealousy.

Riven let Quinn spend most of the day with her as she recovered from her stupid mistakes from the previous night, she figured that Quinn just liked being near her as she didn't get along with many other members of the league and Riven didn't mind, she even enjoyed having the Demacian around not that she would really care to admit it. By nightfall Quinn finally forced Riven out of bed in order to try and eat something, the scout seemed pretty concerned with her eating habits, commenting on how thin she was.

Quinn asked if she could stay the night, Riven rejected this idea, not because she didn't want the Demacian to stay (it was the exact opposite actually), she was afraid of having another repeat of the first time that Quinn stayed. The bruising around the scout's neck was only just beginning to fade; Riven didn't trust herself enough for it to not happen again. Riven couldn't bring herself to share these fears with Quinn but she hoped that the scout would use her abilities to read her like always and pick up on why she said no. Riven remained silent as Quinn left disappointed.


	26. Part Two: Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Riven didn't know what she was thinking when in the middle of the night she found herself standing outside of Katarina's door. She was risking a lot by coming to the assassin, standing out in the hallway of the Noxian wing. She clenched her fists as she built up the courage to knock, the assassin answering promptly, clearly half asleep. Katarina gave her a confused look for a few moments before wordlessly letting her in.

Katarina pulled out two glasses and a bottle of bourbon, knowing it was Riven's favourite drink, pouring herself one and one for Riven. Riven took hers and downed it in one swig, trying to calm her nerves. The assassin let out a slight chuckle, knowing Riven well enough to know when she's anxious. Riven took in a deep breath before walking around the table between them, Katarina turned to face her, her back to the table. Riven placed her hands on the table on either side of the assassin and cornered her, hovering her mouth just above Katarina's lips. The exile took in a few shaky breaths before connecting her lips with the assassin's.

The kisses at first were nervous and timid, the pair trying to get a feel for kissing each other after years apart. Once they had reached a rhythm, they began aggressively grasping at each other, trying to pull each other closer even when they were as close together as possible. Riven left Katarina's lips, dragging her lips along the redhead's jaw and down to her neck, her hands aggressively removing the clothing on Katarina's upper half, almost tearing the material. Riven hooked Katarina's legs around her waist and carried her to the bed, where she began yanking Katarina's boots and pants off, leaving her naked in front of the exile.

The pair were taking the opportunity to take out their frustrations on each other, no longer trusting in words after endless fighting. Riven quickly buried her head between Katarina's legs, firmly grabbing hold of the assassin's hips to hold them in place on the bed as she used her tongue to devote harsh, relentless attention to her clit. Katarina responded by bucking into Riven's hands and face, struggling against the exile's aggressiveness.

Riven removed one of her hands from Katarina's hips, beginning to tease her entrance, building the assassin up, making her wait for what she wanted. The assassin tossed her hips up, silently begging for Riven to just get on with it, to just fuck her already and the exile obliged, forcing two fingers in. Her brutal entrance forced the assassin to cry out slightly before she quietened herself. The assassin dug her fingers into Riven's shoulders, dragging her nails harshly along them, drawing blood.

"Don't stop. Fuck." Katarina let out in a somewhat breathy voice, already being brought close to her climax so soon by Riven's aggression, the exile had never really been this forward before she disappeared and it turned Katarina on far more than she would care to admit. Once Riven felt that Katarina was on the verge of orgasm, she withdrew her fingers and pulled her face away, earning a frustrated groan from the assassin.

"Beg." Riven said in a dark, husky tone. She wanted the assassin to bend to her will, at least just this once. Katarina let out a small whine, turning away from Riven slightly, trying to hold out from having to beg. Her protest didn't last long, as soon as Riven ran the length of her finger along Katarina's clit to reignite her arousal she began to beg.

"Please, just fuck me. _Please_." Riven looked down at her with a victorious smirk before returning to her ministrations, her mouth back on the assassin's clit and her fingers inside her again moving in a thrusting, curling motion. It brought Katarina to orgasm swiftly, the assassin letting out a string of curse words loud enough that she was sure at least one of her neighbours would hear.

While the assassin recovered, Riven began tugging away at her own clothes, wanting to get Katarina to return the favour as quickly as possible. Hearing the Sinister Blade beg beneath her had turned her on so much she wanted the assassin's fingers inside of her _right fucking now._ Katarina straddled her waist, bringing her mouth and tongue to one of Riven's nipples, teasing it and twisting the other nipple with one of her hands, the exile arching her back up into the assassin. She struggled underneath the Sinister Blade, wanting Katarina to just get on with it, she was already turned on enough, she didn't need any more foreplay.

Riven knew Katarina was taking her time in order to get her revenge, slowly kissing her way down the exile's navel and hovering above her crotch, close enough for Riven to feel her hot breath on her skin. Riven reached forward, grabbing onto the assassin's head and forcing her to close the gap, holding Katarina's mouth to her clit. The exile gyrated her hips into Katarina's face, trying to encourage more friction, trying to display how much she wanted the assassin to give in and ruthlessly take her to orgasm.

Finally after enough encouragement the assassin responded, forcing multiple fingers into Riven roughly, dragging her teeth lightly over her clit in between flicks of her tongue. Katarina clearly hadn't forgotten how to bring Riven to orgasm quickly, still remembering exactly what turned her on. Riven tightened her grip on the assassin's hair, moaning loudly as Katarina brought her up and over the edge in just minutes. She remained silent for most of her orgasm before falling limp on the mattress, the assassin finally pulling away once she felt Riven was spent.

Riven took a few minutes to collect herself before picking her clothes up from the floor, getting dressed quickly. The pair said nothing to each other as Riven made her exit, heading back to her quarters as quickly as possible to avoid being spotted in the Noxian wing.


	27. Part Two: Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Riven forced herself out of bed the next day by about lunch time. She hadn't actually slept, as almost always the case, but she couldn't bring herself to move either. Riven had thought that maybe by visiting Katarina late last night she would satisfy her frustrations and finally be able to sleep, possibly even to let go but all it did was bring the assassin even further into the foreground of her mind. She got up and forced herself into a freezing cold shower, trying to numb herself to a degree.

While in the shower Riven came to a decision, she wasn't going to let this thing with Katarina continue the way it was. She was going to force the assassin to talk to her even if she had to lock her away until she gave in, the constant fighting was driving the exile crazy and it wasn't fair to Quinn how she continued to see the both of them, even if she hadn't made the scout any promises. Once out of the shower, Riven got dressed into the tattered remains of her commanders uniform that she still refused to part with after all this time, strapping her broken rune sword to her back before heading out into the hallway.

She first went to the Noxian wing, choosing to ignore the venomous looks she received from the Noxian champions as she walked to Katarina's room, knocking on the door. She waited for a few moments and knocked again when there was no response. When the assassin still didn't answer, Riven began to head towards the training rooms. She was going to give Katarina the benefit of the doubt and assume she wasn't in her room, hoping to find her training instead of trying to hide from her by not answering the door.

Riven reached the training rooms, finding them filled with champions she barely recognised, a few of them famous faces from around Runeterra but most of them were complete strangers to Riven. She spotted Sarah Fortune at a workbench in the corner, making adjustments to her twin pistols and headed over to her, as far as Riven knew Sarah was close friends with Katarina, hopefully she would know where the assassin had disappeared to.

"Sarah." Riven said, trying to get the attention of the bounty hunter. Sarah stopped what she was doing and turned to the exile, eyebrow raised, not looking too particularly pleased to see her.

"What do you need?" She said with an exasperated sigh.

"Do you know where Katarina is? I need to speak with her."

"No, I don't." Sarah responded with anger in her tone, Riven stood there for a minute, not exactly sure what she had done to earn this treatment from the bounty hunter. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be angry with you. Katarina won't speak to me after she found out about what happened between us, I've been trying to talk to her since what happened in the bar but she won't see me. How's your face?" Sarah was trying to be considerate, trying to show concern for Riven even if she was angry about how a one night stand between them had come between her and her closest friend.

"It's improving. Any clue where she might be hiding? I've tried her quarters and here and haven't been able to find her."

"Try the match rosters board, if she's not listed for today then I don't know where she is, sorry." The bounty hunter finished before turning back to her pistols, giving Riven her cue to leave.

Riven wondered around for a while, somewhat lost while trying to find the rosters board. She had been shown where it was when she first arrived, she knew it was outside the archives building but trying to find where that was, was the problem. After enough wrong turns and dead ends she managed to find it, trying to read the match rosters board. She knew what Katarina's name looked like when written down but she still couldn't read very well, she could spot the assassin's name a few times on the rosters but she didn't know when those matches were meant to take place.

After standing at the board with a confused look on her face for several minutes, a platinum blonde woman came over to put her out of her misery. Riven turned to her, looking her in the eyes, surprised to find iridescent pupils and a brand on her forehead. She had heard rumours about a woman matching this description, if Riven was correct this was Diana, Scorn of the Moon.

"Having trouble reading the board?" Diana asked, making her best attempt at a friendly tone.

"Yeah. I'm trying to find out what matches Katarina Du Couteau is in but I can't actually read it. I need to know if she's in a match right now." Diana turned to the board in response to what Riven said, her eyes skimming it for information before turning back to Riven.

"She's not listed here but I think I know why. I believe she was sent back to Noxus early this morning, something to do with a meeting with Swain."

"How would you know that?" Riven quirked her eyebrow at the woman in front of her, how would someone like Diana know that before she did?

"I overheard her talking with her sister this morning in the dining hall; she didn't seem particularly pleased about being sent home, though she didn't say why. It sounded like she might be gone for a few days." Riven let out an appreciative grunt instead of a proper response. "I hear you have, or at least had, a thing with the Sinister Blade?"

"Yeah, something like that." Diana gestured at her own face, using it to question Riven's injuries which were starting to fade but yet still very visible. "It's complicated." Riven responded to the silent question.

"I see. I've also heard rumours that you have a thing with the Demacian scout." Riven quirked her eyebrow at the Chosen of the Moon, questioning why the woman had such an intense interest in her love life. "I'm sorry, I just find that type of drama very entertaining." Diana said with a slight smile and Riven waived her off.

"Thank you for your help." She said before turning to leave.


	28. Part Two: Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Riven returned to her quarters to find Quinn waiting for her to return, sitting in a cross legged position on the carpet of the hallway. The scout smiled at her when she appeared in front of Quinn. Riven offered her hand to Quinn in order to help her off the floor. The exile unlocked the door to her quarters, leading Quinn inside, still holding onto the scout's hand. She figured she knew what Quinn was here for with the way she was acting.

"What do you need?" Riven asked, smiling at her slightly in order to give her the encouragement she needed to be honest with Riven.

"I want to talk about us."

"I figured as much. What exactly do you want to talk about?" Quinn hesitated for a moment but Riven remained patient, knowing that the scout had kept her feelings to herself for what seemed like years at this point, knowing it wouldn't be easy for Quinn to be so open and vulnerable after so long.

"I want you to make a choice."

"A choice?" Riven questioned as if she didn't already know what Quinn meant by it.

"I want you to decide whether you want to be with me or not. I don't just want to sleep with you, Riven. I want more, I have always wanted more from you." Riven remained quiet, letting the scout say what she needed to say. Quinn never talked much, never really shared her feelings and she figured now that Quinn had started to open up, she would need to keep going until she said everything she had to say. "I've loved you for a long time. I kept it to myself because I know you don't quite feel the same way and that's okay, I can wait for you to feel the same but only if you think there's a chance that might happen. I don't want to hold out for you for you to end up going back to _**her**_." Riven flinched slightly at the way Quinn referred to Katarina, she knew how much Quinn disliked Noxians, particularly the Sinister Blade. She knew that Quinn would never really approve of her going back to Katarina even if she pretended on the outside for Riven's sake.

"If you want to go back to her, that's fine. I just want to know now before I let myself get even more attached. Losing my…." Quinn cut herself off from actually saying it, she had always been embarrassed for remaining a virgin for so long, even if she was really glad that she had managed to lose hers to Riven, "I don't regret anything, it was wonderful, but now that I have a taste of what it would be like to be with you, I need an answer, I can't continue to wait in limbo and hope you feel the same way."

Riven remained quiet for a few moments after Quinn finished speaking, she reflected on the past few days after having slept with Quinn for the first time. It was an experience that she enjoyed far more than she had ever thought, she felt the same about the intimate moments between them where Quinn took care of her, held her and showed concern for her. She knew that if given the chance she could feel something far more than friendship for the scout, heck, she probably already did if she really thought about it. The only thing that held Riven back was her past with Katarina. The Sinister Blade was far from good at all those things that Quinn seemed to be great at, she never knew how to share her feelings and she certainly wasn't very good at comforting Riven whenever she needed it, not that the exile made it particularly easy, but that didn't stop her from falling in love with Katarina in the first places. She loved Katarina for who she was, including all the rough around the edges parts of her personality.

"I understand." Riven started finally, "Would you give me a few days to be able to speak to Katarina first? I was going to speak to her today but it turns out she's returned to Noxus on a short trip. I won't hold back my answer from you for longer than that." Quinn considered her request for a moment, her eyes scanning Riven's face while she decided.

"I think I can live with a few more days. I've already been waiting to get the courage to tell you how I feel for over two years now." Riven responded to this by pulling the scout in for a kiss, digging her fingers into her light brown hair, curling her fingers in it. "Stop doing that, you'll make me want you even more." Quinn said with a slight chuckle in between searing kisses.

"You can stay tonight, if you want." Riven offered.

"I would love that."


	29. Part Two: Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Riven waited patiently for a few days for the assassin to return from Noxus, having Diana keep an eye out for her for when Katarina returned. Diana was more than willing to involve herself in Riven's business to keep herself entertained. Diana knocked on her door once she had seen the assassin enter the Institute with her bags, letting Riven know where she had gone which was back to her quarters. She thanked Diana for her help before heading off immediately to the Noxian wing of the building. She wasn't about to let the assassin escape, attempting to corner her into finally talking with her about what was going to come next between them, to find out what Katarina wanted.

She knocked loudly, wanting to get Katarina's attention as soon as possible. The redhead appeared promptly, opening the door with a semi-annoyed look on her face, most likely at how loudly she knocked. She stared at Riven, waiting for the exile to begin speaking and inform her why she was here.

"I want us to finally talk. Let's end this stupid back and forth and just talk." Riven waited patiently for the assassin to respond.

"Okay, come by for dinner tonight and we'll talk." Katarina said before closing the door in her face, leaving Riven standing in the hallway with a surprised look on her face. She hadn't expected it to be so easy for Riven to get Katarina to speak with her willingly, she hadn't expected her to just be able to ask for it and get what she wanted so quickly but she was going to take her victory where she could.

Riven spent the rest of the day in the training rooms, running drills with her rune sword in order to take her mind off what she was waiting for, not wanting to build her dinner with Katarina tonight up in her head and get anxious about the outcome. All she needed to find out from the assassin was what she wanted, whether she wanted to try again. She wanted to be told to stay or be given permission to move on, to tie things up with the assassin for good.

After she ran her drills, she returned to her quarters for a quick shower and got dressed, choosing to pull out the only pieces of clothing she had other than her ruined commanders uniform, wanting to at least make the effort to be dressed better than normal. She headed over to the Noxian wing, standing nervously outside the assassin's door. She wasn't sure why she felt as anxious about what could happen tonight, clenching her fists nervously before knocking on the door. Katarina opened the door after a few moments and wordlessly stepped out of the way, letting Riven into her quarters.

Riven took a seat at the dining table without saying anything, she could smell something from the kitchen, it smelt like it was some sort of typical Noxian meat dish. She had never seen Katarina cook before she left Noxus, she wasn't sure if she had always been able to or whether this was something she had learned over the years since Riven disappeared. On the table in front of her there was a bottle of expensive Noxian bourbon, two glasses already filled. Riven reached forward and began drinking from hers while she waited for the assassin to return with their dinner.

After a few minutes, Katarina appeared from the kitchen with two plates of food in hand, her placing one meal in front of Riven and the other on the side of the table she would be sitting at. Katarina silently began picking at her food, not looking Riven in the eye until she noticed Riven not eating her food.

"You can start eating, you know." Katarina said before taking another mouthful.

"I know, maybe we should talk first."

"Let's wait until after dinner, at least our food won't get cold." Riven paused for a moment before speaking.

"I love you, Katarina." Katarina stopped eating her food in response to the admission. She looked away from Riven for a moment, not wanting to look Riven in the eyes until the exile began to try eat her food.

"Wait." Katarina said as Riven brought the fork with food on it to her mouth.

"What?"

"Nevermind, don't worry about it." Riven stared at her for a moment before putting the food in her mouth. After a few mouthfuls, Katarina spoke again. "I love you too, Riven." Riven gave her a small smile while she cleared her plate. She downed her food with the rest of the bourbon she had sitting in front of her.

Riven went to start talking to Katarina, to ask her what she wanted from Riven, what she wanted from them when the room began to spin a bit. Riven pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to centre herself. Riven coughed a bit, feeling a creeping burning feeling in her throat, her mind reeling at the familiar feeling. She looked at Katarina desperately for a moment who had her eyes locked to the floor, refusing to look Riven in the eyes.

"Why?" Riven managed to choke out before standing up from her chair. She headed for the door, desperately grabbing at the door handle, trying to escape the assassin's quarters. She stumbled down the hall way, trying to find her bearings, the world spinning around her as the burning in her throat went from being slight to an overwhelming, searing pain. She had never personally experienced Cassiopeia's poison before but she knew what it did. She managed to stumble out the door of the Noxian wing, trying to find the Demacian wing, trying to find her way to Quinn. It wasn't long until she completely lost the ability to walk, to know where she was. Her final thoughts before she blacked out was that she needed to find Quinn, she needed the scout's help.


	30. Part Two: Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Riven woke with a horrendous headache, sun shining straight onto her face through the cracks between the blinds. Her whole body was stiff, aching when she tried to roll over to hide her face from the sun. It wasn't until she began to wake up properly that she opened her eyes, looking down to the hand that was wrapped around her own tightly. It was Quinn holding her hand tightly, her head resting on the edge of the bed, obviously having fallen asleep while sitting by Riven's side on a chair.

She waited for another hour, just lying quietly and running what happened through her mind, not wanting to wake up the scout. Eventually she gave in, bored of sitting with her own thoughts and tugged at Quinn's hand to wake her up. The scout sat up, surprised by the movement of Riven's hand and looked her in the eyes.

"You're awake." Quinn said with a smile.

"Yeah." Riven said with a croaky voice, not realising how thirsty she was until now.

"How are you feeling?" Quinn reached forward as if she were going to cup Riven's cheek but withdrew her hand at the last second almost as if she were afraid to touch Riven in a more intimate way.

"I'm sore and still exhausted but I think I'll live." She coughed as she spoke. "Do you have any water?" Quinn got up and grabbed a cup of cold water for her from her kitchen, Riven taking the opportunity to examine the room she was in. It certainly wasn't a champions quarters in the Institute, it was far too large and lavish for that. The furniture and set up of the apartment was very distinctly Demacian with touches of Quinn's personality here and there. She had no clue where she was. Quinn came back to her side, placing the cup of water in her hands and helping her weakened arms raise it to her mouth for her to gulp the entire glass down. "Where are we?" She asked Quinn.

"Oh, right. We're at my place, in Demacia." Riven turned a ghostly colour at the idea of being in Demacia, Quinn taking her hand again in hopes to comfort her once she saw the look on the exiles face. "Don't worry, they're aware you're here and they're okay with it. Well, Jarvan approved it anyway, they might not necessarily be okay with it."

"What happened? I don't really remember much."

"Yeah, the doctors said that might happen. I don't really know much about how it happened but I found you slumped outside my door, unconscious so I took you to the infirmary. I feel bad because at first I thought you had just gotten very drunk but when I couldn't smell any alcohol, I realised something was wrong. Apparently you were poisoned and tried to come find me to get help, making it all the way to my door. You've been unconscious for about three weeks now. As soon as you were stable enough to move, I got permission from Jarvan to hide you here. I didn't trust those Du Couteaus not to come back to finish you off if I kept you at the Institute."

"Wait, Katarina and Cassiopeia had something to do with this?" Quinn looked away, a sad look on her face, knowing she would have to tell Riven the bad news.

"They managed to cross match the poison in your system with Cassiopeia's poison. Apparently you had dinner with Katarina and then I found you by my door so it's thought that Katarina used her sister's poison in your food and then you managed to escape before it killed you." Riven sat there in disbelief, flashes of the night coming back to her.

"Katarina wouldn't do that. She would try to kill me with knives; she would do it in the open." Quinn gave her a look that almost bordered on pity. Riven knew she was right deep down, but even after all this time, her feelings for Katarina were getting in the way of seeing the truth.

"I wish that were true, Riven. I know how you feel about her, it would be hard to accept that she tried to kill you. But think about it, she went back to Noxus for a few days and then suddenly she's willing to talk to you one on one and have dinner? Does that make sense to you?" Riven gnawed on her lip as she thought back, thinking about the guilty look on Katarina's face as she confessed she still loved the assassin, the way Katarina made a brief attempt to stop her from eating her food before telling Riven that she felt the same way, unable to look her in the eyes. She knew Katarina was loyal to Noxus, but even Riven didn't think it would go to the point of killing her on Swain's request.

Riven put all the pieces together, realising that Quinn was right, Katarina had made a underhanded attempt at ending her life by Swain's command. The assassin valued her standing in Noxus over Riven's life. She began to cry, something she hated doing but she had no control over her emotions in this moment, overwhelmed by feelings of betrayal. Quinn wordlessly slipped herself under the bedsheets and pulled Riven in tight, trying to help her through her pain.

"I have you." Quinn said, carding her fingers through Riven's hair in an attempt to soothe, knowing there wasn't much she could say or do in order to ease Riven's pain. The woman she loved had tried to kill her, had almost succeeded in doing so and here Quinn was, selflessly trying to help her. Riven realised how much Quinn must love her, she was willing to stick by Riven's side even as she was pushed aside for Katarina, a woman that clearly didn't love Riven as much as the exile had originally thought. She made a mental note to thank Quinn for all of this later, to show the scout how much she appreciated her.


	31. Part Two: Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Riven woke up, still lying in bed in Quinn's arms, she had fallen back to sleep after her emotional outburst earlier having taken so much out of her. She was still so exhausted, Riven figured it was the toll the poison had taken on her body. Quinn noticed she had woken up and sat up in bed, smiling at her softly with her fingers still carding through the exile's hair.

"Good, you're awake again. Do you think you would be up for heading down to the main hall?"

"The main hall?" Riven asked, confused.

"Yeah, I told Jarvan that when you woke up, I would bring you to meet him to talk about what comes next and as far as I know he's down in the main hall at the moment." Riven finally put it together in her mind that she wasn't just staying in Quinn's apartment, she was staying in Quinn's quarters in the royal palace in Demacia. Quinn slid herself out of bed, standing up and then peeling the sheets back from Riven. "Let's give you a shower and get you dressed first, you've been lying in my bed asleep for almost three weeks now." Riven shuffled her body over to the edge of the bed, surprised by how much effort it took her to do so. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, placing her feet on the floor. She tried to force herself up off the mattress only to find her body shake in response. Quinn grabbed hold of her wrists and helped pull her up to her feet before wrapping one arm around Riven's waist to help her walk to the bathroom.

Riven rested herself up against the sink as Quinn set up the shower for her before helping her remove her clothing and into the shower. Riven was embarrassed by her currently weakened state but relieved that the person seeing her like this was Quinn, knowing that the scout wouldn't be judging her for needing help, possibly she would even be excited to know that she could help Riven in some way. Once Riven was cleaned up, Quinn passed her some clean clothing. It wasn't the commanders uniform that she always wore, it was some typical Demacian clothing, she figured the scout must have found out what sizes she wore and went to buy her some new clothes, taking any excuse to help her. If Riven had been awake, she would have refused to let Quinn buy her anything, even if she only had a few pieces of clothing but the Demacian probably knew that already.

Riven followed Quinn quietly through the halls of the Demacian royal palace, she felt naked without her rune sword strapped to her back but she had chosen to trust Quinn when the scout asked her to leave it behind, saying it wouldn't look good for Riven to be walking around while armed. Even while wearing Demacian clothing, most of the people they passed in the hallways could pick out her Noxian background and gave her varying looks of disgust, giving Quinn looks of curiosity at the sight of her being seen with a Noxian so openly.

The pair found Jarvan in the main hall, discussing something with a group of soldiers. Quinn signaled for Riven to wait patiently with her for Jarvan to be done talking. She could already feel her thighs becoming tired from the walking and standing but she wasn't about to complain, not wanting to inconvenience anyone by asking to be returned to Quinn's quarters. Jarvan spotted Quinn and Riven waiting for him once he was done talking and closed the distance between them, gesturing for them to follow him into a private room, closing the big wooden doors behind them. Riven was relieved to be offered a seat, taking it quicker than she would have liked the other two to have noticed.

"How are you feeling?" Jarvan asked Riven.

"Weak, but okay." Riven replied, trying to be honest with the man who had taken a political risk in hiding her away. Not only was he hiding her from his enemies but to have a Noxian, even if she lived in self-imposed exile, staying inside the same building as the royal family was quite the risk.

"I'm glad to hear you're improving," Riven was surprised to hear what sounded like Jarvan being genuine, "Years ago when you hid here in Demacia, Quinn convinced me that you weren't a threat, that you were living in self-imposed exile because you don't like Noxus for what it is currently. Can I take that as you being interested in changing it?" Riven stared at Jarvan for a minute before responding, wondering if the prince was suggesting what she thought he was.

"Yes, I don't believe Noxus is what it could be, I think Swain is leading it astray."

"So you wouldn't stand in my way if it came to removing Swain?" Jarvan asked her, his arms crossed over his chest, purposefully holding a powerful posture.

"No. In fact I would be interested in assisting if it came to that. I would understand if you just wanted me to keep far away, I know that you and the other Demacian champions of the League have no reason to trust a Noxian, I know that I had no reason to trust you until now, you took a risk by hiding me away and I'm grateful. The last Noxian I had any attachment to has proven her loyalty to Noxus, so I won't stand in your way."

"You can thank Quinn for being allowed to stay here, I wouldn't have said yes had she not been so persuasive and persistent." Riven could see Quinn's face redden from the corner of her eye. "You have my permission to stay until you are able to travel, then Quinn can escort you back to the League." Jarvan said before making his exit, Quinn crossing the room to Riven to help her out of her seat.

Quinn helped her walk back to the scout's quarters, taking the first chance to climb back into bed, exhausted by just the small trip. She wasn't surprised that Cassiopeia's poison had done so much damage, she should have died but poison wasn't what Katarina was good at, she most likely didn't give Riven enough, which was something she could be grateful for. She was trying to hide how much Katarina's betrayal hurt her from Quinn, knowing how the Demacian felt for her, trying to be respectful for Quinn's feelings. She curled up in bed facing away from where Quinn sat.


	32. Part Two: Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

Several months had passed since Katarina tried to poison Riven. It had taken another three weeks for Riven to be strong enough to make the return trip to the Institute with Quinn. When they returned, the scout insisted that Riven continue to stay in the Demacian wing of the building in order for Quinn to keep a close eye on her, both of them knew that Riven could take care of herself, that Katarina wouldn't be able to make a second attempt on her life and succeed but Riven chose to let Quinn get away with her excuse to have Riven live with her and gave in.

Riven chose to ignore the Demacians who lived at the League and hated Riven staying with Quinn, most of them were pretty open about their dislike for Noxians, particularly Riven. She didn't have to endure too much of it, Quinn didn't speak to most of the other champions, she didn't like them and they didn't want to spend time with someone so rural and low born. There was only one Demacian champion that took any interest in getting to know Riven and that was Luxanna Crownguard. Riven couldn't tell whether the interest was out of pure curiosity or whether it was because Jarvan wanted someone he trusted to keep an eye on her if she was going to be spending so much time with Quinn and in the Demacian wing.

Riven had almost forgotten her conversation with Jarvan in the Demacian royal palace several months ago until the prince himself appeared at the door of Quinn's champion quarters while Riven was alone, the scout having gone out on a mission for the next few days. When Jarvan entered the room, his demeanour made Riven realise that sending Quinn on a mission at this point and time was deliberate.

"You said that if I required your help to take down Swain that you would be willing to help." Riven nodded silently, acknowledging that she remembered the offer she made, "It's time for me to take you up on that offer, I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Luxanna has been watching the movements of the Noxian champions for months. Swain is staying in the Noxian wing alone tonight; most of the other Noxian champions are either on missions, in Noxus or out drinking at Gragas' bar like always. It's time to make our move." Riven didn't even have to respond to this with words, only grabbing her broken rune sword and sheathing it into its holder on her back.

Riven followed Jarvan on what seemed like a planned route throughout the Institute, one most likely picked for its ability to have the pair of them reach Swain without being detected. Riven was somewhat surprised by the fact that Jarvan was working with Riven alone on this one, thinking it was strange that he didn't want at least another Demacian with them to make sure Riven didn't do anything to harm him while they were alone but she guessed he had to for the sake of secrecy.

Jarvan entered the Noxian wing first, checking to see if the way to Swain's quarters were clear. Once he had evaluated that it was, he asked Riven to lead, to strike Swain first. Riven followed his request without question, entering the General's room and heading for him, blade drawn, as he sat at his desk. Swain cast out some of his spells in a panic, trying to create distance between them as she brought her weapon down on him. Riven could feel the burn of Swain's magic eating at her torso but she pushed through, cutting the General down. She had been so wrapped up in the moment, so wrapped up in finally getting her revenge that she hadn't realised, hadn't noticed, that Jarvan never followed her in. It was only when Jarvan appeared with a group of armed Institute guards that Riven realised she had been used. Jarvan had used her hatred for Swain, her genuine goal of wanting to change Noxus and the feelings and trust she had developed for Quinn to his advantage, using Riven to take the fall for his goals.

Riven threw herself out the window with all the remaining strength she had after the damage dealt by Swain to her body, taking cuts to her body from the glass as it shattered, falling multiple storeys to the ground below. She managed to tuck her body into a roll to prevent taking on too much damage from the impact and forced herself to her feet, heading for the front gates, wanting to take advantage of her lead to escape. She quickly disappeared into the night, leaving everything behind for the second time in her life.


	33. Part Two: Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Riven had managed to find her way to Bilgewater after killing Swain, one of the few parts of Runeterra that couldn't be touched by the Institute's influence. With what she had done, she had to remain as far away from the major nations as possible, even if the Ionians, Demacians and Freljordians were pleased with what she had done, they wouldn't hesitate to turn Riven over to the Institute to prevent war. War would be what would happen if they chose to hide her, all the major nations could do was not go out of their way to look for her.

It didn't take long for Quinn to find her; Riven knew she would find her as quickly as she could once she found out what had happened. Finding people was the scout's best skill, tracking Riven to Bilgewater within two weeks of her escape. Quinn was torn by her loyalty to Demacia and her love for Riven, knowing that Riven wouldn't lie to her about how she had been betrayed by Jarvan but not wanting to leave Demacia behind either. Riven expected Quinn to end things with her and return to Demacia, not able to sever her loyalty to Demacia, just like Katarina.

Except she did, she chose Riven over Demacia. She left briefly, collecting her belongings from the League in the dead of night so she wouldn't be spotted and returned to Riven, informing her that she had chosen to live in exile with her if Riven would have her. Riven hesitated to say yes, not because she didn't want Quinn to be with her but out of fear for Quinn's safety. If Quinn returned to Demacia now before anyone realised she had left, she could live safely under Jarvan's continued protection. All Riven could offer Quinn was a potential death or being arrested for helping harbor a fugitive of the law. Quinn refused to give into Riven's concerns, insisting that she would be staying as long as Riven wanted her and Riven did want her.

Riven was overwhelmed by feelings of love for this woman, yes love, pulling her down onto the bed with Riven, smothering the Demacian in searing kisses. She gripped at the Demacian's clothing roughly, pulling her into Riven. After a few minutes, Riven pulled away, not wanting to get lost in the heat of the moment.

"I love you." She breathed out, looking up at Quinn as she said it. Quinn had felt love for Riven for a long time, patiently waiting for the exile to be at a point where she felt the same and now Riven realised she did. Riven became confused when the scout began to cry, not exactly the response she had expected and hoped for. "What's wrong? What did I say?" Riven began to panic slightly, having never seen the Demacian react like this to anything.

"I'm just so happy." Quinn said, trying to sniffle away the tears, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hands. "I didn't know if you'd ever feel the same about me as I feel for you but I'm so glad I took the risk." She cupped Riven's face, pulling the exile back in for some more passionate kisses.

Riven and Quinn managed to keep a low profile for over a year in Bilgewater, the two of them shedding their iconic armours and military uniforms for some typical clothing found in Bilgewater. Riven took on some odd jobs at the docks, mostly moving crates on and off ships for low wages and Quinn found a job working in a bar managing their money, it wasn't something Riven expected Quinn to be good at but was pleasantly surprised to find out she was. They managed to get by, they both knew that Sarah Fortune and Gangplank were aware of them hiding in Bilgewater, but they chose to do nothing to turn the pair of exiles into the Institute. Bilgewater wasn't held to the same standard as the larger nations, it had no real government and no one to really hold responsible for Riven and Quinn hiding there, it was the reason Riven chose the location in the first place.

This wasn't the future either of them had expected, but Riven's nightmares were somewhat put at ease by Swain's death, having finally got her revenge for the valley and for Fin, she still felt guilt but not as much. Quinn continued to put her best efforts into helping Riven feel better about herself, not liking to see the exile suffer alone with her guilt, trying to get Riven to open up to Quinn every once and a while. Even though it wasn't what she expected, it made her far happier than she could have ever imagined.

A/N: Alright so that's the end of this fic :D I hope you all enjoyed it, don't be afraid to leave a review or send me a PM about what you thought. I'll be going back to finish off my Riven/Irelia fic What Comes Next, so don't worry, I'll be updating that soon. After I finish that, I'll be moving on from writing Riven fics for a while, expect to see a Diana/Leona one coming soon :D thanks for reading


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